VUKILE DLWATI: How violation (GBV) impacts children and loved ones
Children deserve to feel safe, they have a constitutional right to be free from physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect.
A family in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape wants justice after their six-year-old child was repeatedly raped, allegedly at a daycare facility in 2024. Picture: Screenshot/EWN
The rape of any child at school, goes against the notion of loco parentis which speaks to the legal responsibility that falls on the teachers and schools when children are left in their care.
Children deserve to feel safe, they have a constitutional right to be free from physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect.
I am ticked off by people who think they can take advantage of another human being, be it at the workplace, home, school or any other setting.
The worst are sexual predators who ruin children’s lives. They lurk, watch and study how they can take advantage.
According to a Birth Twenty Plus (Bt20+) study conducted by the Department of Science and Technology the National Research Foundation Centre of Excellence in Human Development at Wits University, in most cases, kids are violated by those whom they trust and respect.
Children are often beaten by their parents, sexually abused by their acquaintances or bullied at the playground.
The recent case of the rape of a seven-year-old has been a trigger of emotions for me.
The alleged lack of co-operation from the school and its principal, as well as the confusion and miscommunication over the collection of DNA samples from the persons of interest, exacerbates the situation.
The case took me back to a time when I had the unfortunate task of reporting on such matters.
I had covered a story on child abuse and how it manifests. I was in tears after learning and understanding what people do to children.
The words of a father who had lost his daughter in the most horrific way still ring in my mind.
‘I WILL NEVER HEAL FROM THE WAY MY DAUGHTER WAS TAKEN FROM ME’
Litha Nkumane’s daughter was raped and killed and although justice was served in that case, the father felt that he could never find peace after what had happened.
“My eight-year-old daughter was rape and murdered in 2013. She was eight. I am not okay, I won’t lie.”
The convict was given a life sentence
Sexual violation is a persistent pest in South Africa’s social spaces. A scourge.
Men need to do more to protect women and children. They must do more to earn back society’s trust.
Trust is earned. My father used to bathe me and my sister, and he made it clear that nobody touches your “bum-bum, your chest or your private parts”.
I am not a father, but I am an uncle to pumpkins that I love; the eldest is 21. It doesn’t take being a parent to understand that our children deserve respect and love.
We need to do better.
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