Charge these abusers

MONDAY was the UN’s designated Universal Children’s Day – and the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It was also the day that the mayor of Emfuleni, Simon Mofokeng, resigned from his post.

Mofokeng will be remembered for many things, but his legacy as a public official is mostly forgettable. Spending over a million rand on fast food and hotel rooms over four years as the mayor of Sedibeng, and then more than R600 000 on takeaways as mayor of Emfuleni, is hardly an example of nation building – and should be remembered only to discourage any other public figure from such a profligate use of public funds.

The reason for his stepping down, though, is far more serious. He stands accused of grooming a minor.

But that’s not all. There were multiple reports, with other victims coming forward to newspapers to recount their ordeals at his hands. The pattern appears to date back several years.

Mofokeng was the author of his own downfall, after he posted a picture of the girl, semi-clothed, to an ANC WhatsApp group. He was put on special leave, pending an investigation.

There were also legal proceedings by the girl to obtain an interim protection order against him. He resigned, though, before the party could finalise its investigations and bring charges against him.

We believe that the ANC must finalise charges against him, try him – in absentia, if necessary – and ban him from ever representing it again. Indeed, it should help the girl he was grooming to lay charges against him in a court of law.

Mofokeng appears to be a man who was once incredibly powerful politically, which he then abused to sate his own appetites – whether by abusing public funds for his own ends or preying upon females, in this case possibly committing statutory rape.

People of his ilk have no place in our society. We are in danger of becoming defined by sexual violence; we have intolerably high levels of rape and gender-based violence.

The only way we can turn this around is to make examples of those who would otherwise be regarded as untouchable. Mofokeng is as good a place as any for this campaign to start.