Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has revealed that more than 1 000 children murders were reported during the 2014 and 2015 financial year.
He has responded to a written Parliamentary question.
The non-profit organisation Molo Songololo says it is disturbing to see that many perpetrators who are responsible for the high number of child murders committed in this country, do not get prosecuted.
Director of Molo Songololo Patrick Solomons says, “We also see a lot of people who have been charged of murder being not properly prosecuted, because evidence is missing; because of poor investigation; sometimes dockets have disappeared; and those things do send up wrong messages, that somehow, there is nothing going to happen to me. If (I) kill someone, if I hurt someone, the idea that there is consequences-it never happens.”
Mbalula is calling on all communities to work with government in the fight against the killing of children.
Weapons being used ranges from guns, knives and stones.
Mbalula admits that the police and government alone cannot win the scourge of killings unless communities come on board.
“We need to form partnership with communities. We cannot win this war against crime on our own. That is why, in my effort in terms of gender-based violence against children, women and lesbians, (we) are actually intensifying the campaign to work with our people and the question that children die in great numbers in the Western Cape is not only a cause for concern.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance says government needs to prioritise the fight against the increase of child murders before it gets out of control.
DA Spokesperson on Police, Dianne Kohler Barnard says the increase in the child homicide rate reflects the need for a swift response.
“This is real … (it) speaks to the lack of urgency showed by government in tackling the scourge of child murders. The Democratic Alliance has been trying to get statistics for child homicide rates in this country for the past 10 years. We have been frustrated by government, who has been either unwilling to fight the crises or is indifferent to it.”
