I congratulate you on the advertisement on November 9, “When a nine-month-old baby was recently gang-raped, who were the guilty parties?”.
The increase in child abuse from 37 500 (in 1998) to 67 017 (last year) as quoted by Minister Steve Tshwete in Parliament earlier this year is a tragic indictment on our government and civil society. Tshwete commented that the increase in reported abuse was as a result of greater awareness of the role and function of the child protection units of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and did not reflect a real increase in the incidence of child abuse.
Where is Tshwete coming from? The figures reported to Parliament reflect only those reports made to the Child Protection Units. They do not reflect reports of child abuse to ordinary SAPS stations. They do not reflect reports to the SAPS where children and their caretakers are turned away because “this is a domestic matter” or “you asked for it”.
Many abused children perceive and still experience officials as uninterested in their problems and thus they remain in situations of abuse for years.
Of concern to Childline KwaZulu-Natal at present are the following:
1. The national Department of Social Development has had on its table for the past four years the National Strategy on the Prevention and Management of Child Abuse. The strategy was developed as a consultative document including all sectors of government involved in the prevention and management of child abuse, as well as NGOs who work with children. The policy is comprehensive. Has it been presented to the Cabinet and been integrated into the line functions of all departments concerned? No!
2. Last year the International Congress on the Prevention and Management of Child Abuse and Neglect was held in Durban. The congress was brought to South Africa in an attempt to sensitise and expose professionals and occupational groups who work in the field of child abuse to improved practice methods and enhance their knowledge. Where were our top government officials? Our national president? Nelson Mandela? Sadly not present.
Do your readers know that:
1. Childline nationally receives about 20 000 calls a month on the crisis line for children.
2. Childline KwaZulu-Natal runs therapy centres for abused children and more than 50% of the children attending therapy at present are victims of sexual assault and are under the age of seven years.
3. Many children we are working with are HIV/Aids-positive as a result of sexual abuse. There is no post-exposure preventive medication for sexual assault victims, child or adult, in the province unless the victim can pay for this her or himself.
4. Forty-two per cent of sexual crimes reported to Childline are committed by children under the age of 18 years.
5. Services provided to children by the NGO sector are hopelessly underfunded given the extent of the problems with which they are presently faced. Childline KZN receives no government funding at all.
6. Referrals of abused children to government services, for example the Department of Social Development, are frequently lost or not followed up promptly. It has sometimes taken up to a year for a government-employed social worker to make contact with a child who has reported abuse.
7. There is no social security provision for destitute child victims of in-family abuse where the offender is the breadwinner. One of the saddest responses to a request for intervention Childline KwaZulu-Natal received this week was in respect of a child who had reported rape by her father. The response read “the family want the rapist removed, but the mother is a stroke patient, there are nine children at home and they will starve without his financial support”.
Who cares about the children in this country? Our politicians? No way.
Although protecting children is everyone’s business, at present our government, despite their lip-service, has its head in the sand. Joan van Niekerk, director, Childline KwaZulu-Natal