Dog-rape victim runs away

2003-08-27 16:50

Johannesburg - The child reportedly forced to have sex with a dog by her employers ran away from a government place of safety 24 days ago, but no-one bothered to tell the police or the department of social services.

Captain Annemarie Potgieter of the North Rand sexual offences unit who is in charge of the case said the first the police knew about her disapperance "was when we read about it in this morning's newspapers".

Gauteng social services spokesperson Panyazi Lesufi admitted the department had known about the child's disappearance for four days before that.

The case hit headlines earlier this year when a 24-year-old Taiwanese man and his 26-year-old sister were charged with forcing the 15-year-old North Sotho-speaking child to have sex with a dog as a punishment.

The child was put into the care of the social services department following an early court hearing. She is due to testify on September 30. If she cannot be found the Taiwanese siblings will go free.

Lesufi said her disappearance had coincidentally come to the department's attention when he informed the institution on Thursday last week that a well-wisher was taking books there for the child. "They told me that she had run away 19 days beforehand with another child.

"The embarrassing thing is that we had collected a computer that day for her from another well-wisher. In addition the public have donated considerable amounts of money for her, a house, a cellphone, an educational policy, a cellphone and a palmtop. Two families had asked that she visit them during school holidays.

"The child had kept telling the social worker that she didn't want to live. She has been very suicidal and had tried to kill herself."

Lesufi said the social worker felt she was unable to deal with "such a depressed child. So we took her off the case and we thought experts in depression that we had appointed were seeing the child."

The child ran away in March but was found and brought back to the place of safety. "When she returned we told the centre to put in place appropriate measures to ensure this could not happen again," Lesufi said.

"However, the institution which cares for between 300 to 400 abused and neglected children has been giving problems - a considerable number of other children have run away from there."

Gauteng social services MEC Angie Motshekga is considering closing down the place of safety and has launched an inquiry into the disappearance of the suicidal child, Lesufi said.

However, he said, that the MEC had not visited the East Rand institution, despite the fact that it was known that the girl was not the only one of the abused and neglected children housed there to have run away.

"She is waiting for reports from social workers and will issue her comments on September 12 when she will also announce a national conference where abused children will give their comments on state institutions," Lesufi said.

"This case is very worrying for the department of social services. We had considered that child as ours. We wanted to show her that society cares. Imagine our disappointment that such a thing could happen," Lesufi said.

- SAPA