Questions remain

PREMIER Helen Zille has announced she will convene a meeting of child protection NGOs to chart the way forward with regards to the child murders in the province. Twenty-five children have been murdered since the start of the year, so this meeting cannot come soon enough.

That so many innocent lives were cut short is an indictment on society. It is sickening that in most cases the perpetrators were not strangers.

Zille reportedly said she wanted the NGOs’ responses to her proposal for a study into six of the murders, and to determine whether a formal inquiry was needed, or if her administration could take more effective steps.

Child rights groups have urged her to set up an inquiry, but she has refused. Zille and the groups had fallen out about what transpired the last time they met. The question is, why has Zille had a sudden change of heart? And why conduct a study first? Zille is on record as saying inquiries cost money. Yes, but the same can be said of studies.

Given Zille’s rejection of calls for an inquiry, is a study preceding an inquiry her way of saving face?

NGOs are on the ground and in communities, and they know better, surely.

That said, we agree with Zille’s assertion that no government can take the place of committed families and communities in protecting children. In many communities, young children are seen wandering around or playing in parks or on pavements without adult supervision. It is a reflection on the families of those children and illustrates a degree of negligence. What has to be asked is, what is it that neighbours do? Some would escort the child home, while others would simply not care. It is the latter who show the extent to which society’s collective care for young children has diminished.

This problem needs urgent attention. As the premier says, it is not a problem any government can fix. But what a government can do is continually create awareness about child safety. Yes, the provincial government does a lot with regards to child protection, but when 25 children are murdered in less than a year, one has to ask whether enough is being done – or whether the right things are done.