A Kempton Park woman who looks after street children has alleged that cases involving police in the Ekurhuleni area do not receive the necessary attention, but the police have denied this.
”The Ekurhuleni Metro Police have held guns against the heads of street children,” alleged Siphumelele ministries founder Elsabe Coetzee.
”In July, a teenager staying with me was sodomised, and when he went to report the matter to the police [South African Police Service] at Kempton Park, they laughed at him and chased him away,” said Coetzee.
She said the traumatised boy waited for her for two days in soiled clothing before she accompanied him to the police station, where a statement was taken.
This incident was confirmed by the acting station commander, Superintendent Kobus Scholtz.
”A criminal case has been opened and is being investigated [related to the sodomy], with a disciplinary hearing done as well [regarding the chasing away of the teenager],” said Scholtz.
Scholtz said the police treat street children the same as anybody else, and help them by sending them to welfare organisations.
”When they are arrested we look after them. They are not targeted,” said Scholtz.
He said the police know Coetzee well and have a good relationship with her, even though ”she thinks that if she talks everybody must jump”.
Paedophiles ‘do terrible things’ to children
Coetzee said police have a ”never mind” attitude to street children. She alleged metro police had set fire to homeless people’s meagre possessions in a vain attempt to clear them off the streets.
She said known paedophiles in the area prey on street children, offering them money and drugs in exchange for sex.
”Nobody misses them [the kids] if they take them to the golf course and have sex with them. They do terrible things to the children, sometimes using prostitutes as well,” said Coetzee.
She said her ministry has compiled a list of eight known paedophiles operating in the area, and has taken note of their personal details, such as car registration numbers, and passed the information on to police.
Scholtz, who has only been the Kempton Park station commander for three months, said he was unaware of this.
Coetzee said she has not yet called on the Independent Complaints Directorate to look into the alleged incompetence at the police station, saying ”at the moment, I’m just trying to cope”.
No complaints received
Ekurhuleni Metro Police spokesperson Wilfred Kgasago said for the period from December 2002 to the present, no complaints of abuse of street children were received.
”Disciplinary records of the metro police officers pertaining to the nature of your enquiry are completely unblemished,” he said.
Kgasago said officers are ”law enforcement officers, not law transgressors”, with the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality ”very sympathetic” towards the plight of street children.
Coetzee, however, said the metro police are ”lying through their teeth” and said children have even gone to the metro police to identify officers involved in alleged assaults.
She also said she had spoken to Ekurhuleni Metro Police chief Robert McBride, but nothing came of this.
Coetzee confirmed that her ministry is not registered with the Department of Social Development, despite being in operation for about four years.
The department has apparently lost her papers, said Coetzee.
The department confirmed on Thursday that the Siphumelele ministry is not registered.
Asked how she manages to feed the 19 children in her care, aged between five and 19, Coetzee said she receives R1 400 a month from a local church, with several supermarkets providing her with food past its sell-by date. She also uses her own money. — Sapa