Rape: 'Hunger keeps kids quiet'

2003-10-17 22:00

Elsabe Brits

Cape Town - Many children are raped by someone they live with.

These children then have to decide whether to keep quiet for the sake of food on the table or speak out and go hungry, said superintendent Jan Swart, the commanding officer of Goodwood's child protection unit (CPU), at an international congress on the prevention of accidents among children.

These children are faced with a very difficult decision - if they report it to police they often stand to lose the family's breadwinner, he said. This is the reality of it, he added.

He said 70% of the time, the offender was either the supporter or the person was known to the child.

He said at present, his unit was investigating about 1 500 cases of sexual assault against children. Every investigative officer has on average 85 cases, he said.

Swart said it might seem like a lot of cases but the situation is in reality much worse. He said about 85% of all sexually assaulted children did not get help and no one knew about them.

This means offenders get away, he said.

According to him, a growing problem was the number of children sexually assaulting other children. Some of the offenders are as young as nine.

Many cases are withdrawn either because the victims are too young to testify and/or that they can be damaged further through the cross-examination process.

Swart said that in the police service, the CPU was called the "nappy squad" and that other units looked at it as "soft work". On the contrary, he said, CPU members' stress levels were extremely high and that the officers worked with a lot of trauma.

- Die Burger