All our children are all our responsibility
THE LAST few weeks has seen a barrage of reports of children, raped and killed at the hands of people and systems entrusted to care for them.
In March the body of Rene-Tracy Roman, 13, was discovered. Half naked and bound at the hands and feet, her decomposed body was found in a shed on a property in the same street she lived. A neighbour has been arrested for her murder.
About a month ago, the body of Stacha Arendse, 11, was discovered in a bush behind the Swartklip Centre, a few streets away from her home. She had been raped and killed, allegedly at the hands of a neighbour.
This week, a 25-year-old Khayelitsha man was charged with killing his 14-month-old daughter. He had a history of violence and had been evading police for months, during which time several warrants were issued for his arrest.
Just yesterday, two men were charged for the murder of four-year-old Iyapha Yamile. Iyapha’s body was found in a plastic bag a stone’s throw from her aunt’s home in Khayelitsha last week.
One of the alleged killers is the father of the friend she was playing with at the time of her disappearance.
On April 21, an accident near Bronkhorstspruit claimed 20 lives, 18 of them young children when a minibus taxi collided with a truck. This, all while police, and community members continue the search for missing threeyear-old Courtney Peters, last seen in Elsies River last Thursday.
As each day passes, they pray she will not suffer the same fate as Rene and Stacha. There are too many tragic deaths to encompass here. Some of those implicated are neighbours, family friends, or a failing justice and school transport system.
The deaths of children around our country are not highlighted for shock value, but to bring attention to the loss of innocent and vulnerable lives. Let us not become desensitised to the rape and murder of children.
Let us support these families, and put pressure on the law to see justice done for the lives lost. These are our children, they need our protection.