Violence towards children is a sign of ‘abandonment of social responsibility’

The growing number of incidents of violence towards children, including by their mothers, has sparked a call for a “human-centred approach” in society.

Puleng Phaka, second deputy president of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), advocated for “capitalism's profit-before-people system” to be dismantled in favour of a system that ensured “economic fairness and human dignity”.

Numsa denounced “the commodification of human life, the normalisation of suffering, and the abandonment of social responsibility.”

Referencing data that showed 315 children were killed in the second quarter of last year, an increase of 7.5% compared to the same period the year before, Phaka said “a society driven by greed, exploitation, and economic exclusion creates desperate conditions where violence festers”.

On what can be done to help children, Phaka recommended interventions to:

1. Tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality: “Joblessness and desperation contribute to the crisis. One of the easiest things the government can do to boost employment is to fix state-owned entities (SOEs) so they can be engine drivers of the economy. SOEs play a role in creating value chains and creating jobs and this can help to drive the economy.”
2. Create early intervention programmes where more social workers are employed to work with communities and provide parental support services. “This can prevent abuse before it escalates.”
3. Organise parental support groups in communities with social workers who are trained to help and advise parents with their children and with their family relationships. “This should also include couples' counselling, conflict management and anger management.”
4. Encourage the community to report abuse so intervention with social workers and police can occur.
5. Have more officers in specialised units within the police service to protect children and investigate child-related crimes.

Phaka said Numsa was “deeply disturbed by terrible crimes” reported during Child Protection Week from May 29 to June 5. These include:

• the murder of Likhona Fose, 14, from Braamfischerville, Johannesburg, at the weekend;
• the May 30 sentencing of Kelly Smith and two co-accused for the human trafficking of her daughter Joshlin in Saldanha; and
• the discovery of the remains of Kutlwano Shalaba, a toddler who went missing in the Vanderbijlpark area last year. The child's mother, Kuneuwe Portia Shalaba, is on trial this week with sangoma Sebokoana Khounyana. She allegedly fed her two-year-old poison-laced milk. It emerged in court that the child's gender is alleged to be the motive. It is claimed she gave birth to a girl but falsely claimed to have a boy, a lie she had grown tired of trying to maintain.

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