More must be done to protect our children

Children are society’s most valuable asset and no efforts should be spared ensuring their formative years are filled with the joy of discovery as they prepare to take their rightful places in the world.

Which is why it is heartbreaking that ours are being crushed underfoot as South Africa buckles under the strain of record high unemployment, poverty and other social ills. They deserve better. 

This week, newspaper headlines told of the senseless murders of two boys in Soweto, Nqobile Zulu, 5, and Tshiamo Rabanye, 6. They were playing with a friend when they were approached by two men in a car. When found the next morning, their bodies had been mutilated. Police suspect that they were killed for muti. 

Their deaths and the pain inflicted on their grieving families are by no means unusual in South Africa, where youngsters are subjected to violence and maltreatment on a scale that brings tears to one’s eyes.

According to police figures, four children die unnatural deaths in the country every day. Behind the headline-grabbing cases, thousands are dying each year from multiple causes, including hunger, disease and violence.  

Coinciding with the Soweto murders comes a parliamentary report, in which figures released by health minister Joe Phaahla show that 178,000 children below the age of five have died in government hospitals since 2013. The causes range from severe malnutrition to pneumonia and diarrhoea. It is a shocking indictment on our health services that in the same period, 12,224 children died unnatural deaths through violence and in motor accidents. 

As elsewhere, police investigating the Soweto case say they will stop at nothing to catch the perpetrators, even as community members say they are being let down by the force.  

It’s impossible for police to stop every crime. But how much effort is going into a strategy to provide a safer environment for our children or is this just another area of neglect for our torpid police force and uncaring government? More needs to be done, in conjunction with community and civic organisations, to provide a safer environment for our children.