Call for stronger family bonds

FOLLOWING a spate of gruesome murders of women and children in the Eastern Cape and other parts of the country recently, social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi identified the building of stronger family bonds as a cornerstone to defeating this scourge.

During a departmental summit at the Tsolo Junction Hall on Saturday, the MEC, addressing more than 100 parents whose children are currently in the O R Tambo District Child and Youth Care Centre, said many homes lacked proper family structures, resulting in some children ending up being “in conflict with the law”.

The event was also aimed at assisting government and parents to consider the best practices they could employ to protect their children and contribute positively to their development.

“A parent has to show love to a child but it can also be destructive love. They need to make sure that they empower them with coping skills that will help them as they grow up,” she said, adding “children must be given skills to protect themselves”.

Giving examples, Sihlwayi said parents should take an interest in their children’s schooling and ensure they went to school.

She also said parents should teach their children responsibility by encouraging them to clean up after themselves from an early age and to wash the dishes after meals, instead of doing it for them.

“If you wash their dishes, they will run to the shebeen because they have boundless energy that they need to use. They will go and do drugs and impregnate someone,” she said.

Sihlwayi called on parents to be good role models for their children, explaining that children tended to imitate their parents.

The MEC cited the horrifying slaughter and partcannibalism of four-year-old Kamvelihle Ngala by a relative in a Port St John’s village last month, and the discovery of a newborn baby dumped in a toilet pit in a Ngqeleni village last week, as some examples of how children had come under siege.

South African Council of Churches acting secretary in the Eastern Cape, Reverend Phumezo Jaxa, who also attended the event, said the church could not remain silent when women and young children were under siege.

He said the absence of father figures in many families had a huge impact on how children turned out in adult life.

“We support the MEC’s stronger families 100%.” — initiative of building