Daily Dispatch
Another tragic child slaying
THE ABDUCTION and murder of a 10year-old Eastern Cape schoolgirl is a bitter pill to swallow. Liyema Dutywa left for school in Misty Mount near Mthatha last Friday, but she never returned home. She had been taken from her school.
On Saturday morning, a police search ended in tragedy. Liyema’s body was found in a forest near Tsolo. She had been shot in the chest, and possible strangled as well.
Swift action by law enforcement has already led to the arrest of three suspects, who are due to appear in court in Libode today. Two of the accused, who cannot be named at this stage, are said to be close relatives of the little girl.
The motive for her killing has yet to be made known, but how does one even begin to justify taking the life of another person, let alone a defenceless girl child? It is incomprehensible and indefensible.
The killing of Liyema Dutywa is just one of the many senseless deaths of children that has sent shockwaves through South African communities in recent months.
The murders of East London toddler Jayde Veldman, two-year-old Lindokuhle Kota from Khayelitsha, 11-year-old Stacha Arendse of Tafelsig and 13-year-old Rene Tracy Roman from Lavender Hill, to name just a few, have made headlines across the country this year.
Last week, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) released a new report detailing murder rates in the country.
It found that nearly 900 children had been murdered in South Africa between 2015 and 2016.
In the past 10 years, that number almost reaches an astonishing 10 000 murders.
As a country, we should hang our heads in shame that so many innocent children have fallen victim to violent crimes.
The report also found that nearly half a million people have been murdered since 1994.
A crime analyst at the institute, Kerwin Lebone, made a startling statement in news reports published last week that South Africans were more likely to be murdered than those of countries affected by terror.
“South Africans live with horrific levels of violent crime. While the murder rate has fallen since 1994, at 31.9 per 100 000 people, it remains one of the highest in the world,” Lebone was quoted in a TMG report a few days ago.
The murder of a child not only affects the family suffering the loss, but has a negative impact on the surrounding communities where these crimes are being committed.
The safety of other children is also compromised, ultimately creating a society living in constant fear.
Killings, particularly of children, is an indictment on us, the South African people, for failing to protect the most vulnerable members of our society. We are failing our children. While arrests have been made in some of the murders of children, in others, the perpetrators still roam the streets.
Law enforcement should remain relentless in its pursuit of the killers to bring peace of mind not only to the family, but the country.