Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News – 18-05-2018
A child protection consultant says she is very concerned by recent statistics which show that children were victims of more than 40% of all rape cases recorded in the past three financial years.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) said a parliamentary reply from the minister of police Bheki Cele also revealed that only 21% of child rape cases resulted in successful convictions.
The party asked then police minister Fikile Mbalula in August last year to disclose the number of child murders and child rapes which took place from 2014 until 2017.
Child protection consultant Joan van Niekerk says while the statistics are shocking, there are many cases that go unreported.
“We have the problem in this country that many cases of child abuse, sexual abuse of children are never reported to the police for various reasons. Some of these reasons include the perception that our criminal justice system is not geared for children and therefore often increases or re-traumatizes children.”
Van Niekerk says the statistics also question how young men are being raised in South Africa.
“We cannot avoid the fact that most abuse of children is perpetrated by men. Most of the rapes of children that we are seeing are perpetrated by men. I do think that we are raising many of our children in a context of violence and in a context in which taking what you want is seen as appropriate.”
Van Niekerk says all children must be raised with the knowledge that they have the right to be protected.
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