3 kids killed daily in 3 months
2005-10-06 15:39
Cape Town - Almost 300 children were murdered during the first three months of last year, emphasising that South Africa is facing a child-abduction crisis, said the Democratic Alliance's Mike Waters.
"This represents about three children a day or one every 7.5 hours," he said.
In addition, he told reporters at parliament on Thursday, between 1 400 and 1 700 children were reported missing in South Africa each year and only 11% were found.
"This country faces a child-abduction crisis.
There is a desperate need for some constructive measures to put back the power into the hands of caring South Africans to stop this scourge," he said.
The plight of missing and abducted children was again brought to light after a spate of abductions and murders in the Western Cape in September.
Last week saw the funerals of three-year-old Joey Joseph, who was abducted outside her home in Delft and seven-year-old Veronique Solomons, who was kidnapped near her Steenberg home.
'No South African child is safe'
September also saw the kidnapping of East Rand schoolgirl Marissa Naidoo, 10, from Benoni Primary School by a business associate of her father. Her body was found in a suitcase.
Waters on Thursday called for more community involvement and an aggressive search and rescue programme for missing children.
"A spate of child murders in the past few weeks has made it clear no South African child is safe," he said in announcing a seven-point policy proposal to finding missing children.
He proposed transmitting details of missing children via SMS to cellphone owners in the areaa where an abduction had taken place.
Waters said that while service providers supported the plan in principle, details had to be thrashed out.
He also proposed the immediate broadcasting of missing children's details over radios.
"In the United States, Code Adam was created as a way of instantly galvanising people in the immediate vicinity of a reported abduction in a shopping centre to search for the child."
He said the DA proposed a similar system for South African - Code Lerato.
Database of children's details
He said time was of the essence and, for children abducted in shopping centres, this action tended to panic the kidnapper into leaving children behind.
But, he also suggested the creation of a children's database comprising fingerprints and birth-certificate details.
"When a child goes missing, it is important that information that would help to identify the child is available quickly," he said.
For victims not immediately found, he proposed photographs be posted on snack and cool-drink packaging and on street posters and for national Missing Children's Day to act as reminder of those still not found.
- SAPA