It’s shameful to have children endure such fear

While one Eastern Cape girl is preparing for the biggest day of her life when she meets President Cyril Ramaphosa, another is living in fear after being accused of witchcraft. Daisy Ngedle, 8, is expected to meet the president in Mdantsane on Friday after the Clarendon Primary School for Girls Grade 3 pupil wrote a letter to him last year enquiring about his work and whether girls could be presidents.

Ramaphosa replied to her this week in a moving letter.

While Daisy will likely cherish the time she met the president for the rest of her life, another little girl, around 400km away, is having a particularly hard time. The nine-year-old and two of her younger siblings have been taken to a place of safety by the department of social development. This after parents of some children in Ntabankulu marched to her school – Hlankomo Primary School in Hlankomo village – demanding that she be removed from school.

As a result, the Grade 5 pupil and her eight-year-old Grade 3 sister have missed out on school since Monday.

Their three-year-old brother was also taken to a place of safety.

There has also been no schooling at Hlankomo which further disadvantages pupils who have to work extra hard to achieve the same results as their urban area counterparts.

The unproven and ridiculous allegations of witchcraft came after a parent allegedly overheard the child saying she would smear muti on the pens of some of her peers so they would fail. Her parents worry about what will happen when she returns from the place of safety.

The Dispatch has extensively reported on how elderly women, especially in the former Transkei, have been killed because they had been accused of witchcraft. In all cases, there was no evidence of such. Government leaders have consistently condemned this while law-enforcement agencies have called on people not to take the law into their own hands.

Children should be able to live their lives without fear of being abused or accused of witchcraft.

And if they are as lucky as Daisy, maybe meet the commander-in-chief one day.

Children should be able to live their lives without fear of being abused or accused of witchcraft