One child raped every 24 minutes
11/04/2007 10:51  - (SA)  

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Johannesburg - A child is raped every 24 minutes and every eight minutes one is molested in South Africa, trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday.

Forty percent of rapes reported were of children, said deputy general secretary Dirk Hermann ahead of a conference on Thursday to discuss crimes against children.

"According to a report that will be discussed at the conference, more than three children are murdered every day in South Africa."

The conference would also discuss the murder of seven-year-old Sheldean Human, who was abducted from her Pretoria home in February.

Her body was found in a stream in Pretoria West in early March.

"Sheldean's fate has become a symbol of the vulnerability to crime of all South Africans, and of children in particular," said Hermann.

Other matters to be discussed at the conference were the closing of the SAPS Child Protection Unit, Gauteng Social Development departments, the decision to halt social subsidies for needy whites and the failure of the legal system to protect children.