Shock child murder figures
2003-07-07 21:51
Cape Town - More than 1 000 children under 17 are murdered every year in South Africa, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Monday.
That's about 7% of the national murder figure.
In a written response to a parliamentary question by the NNP, Nqakula said 1 458 children were murdered in 2000. In the nine months between January and September 2001, 920 were killed.
The most murders took place in the Eastern Cape, followed by
KwaZulu-Natal (488), the Western Cape (361), Gauteng (254), Limpopo (173), Mpumalanga (149), North West (142), Free State (106) and the Northern Cape (60).
Statistics released by Nqakula last week showed 21 045 murders took place between April 2001 and March last year, 21 785 between April 2000 and March 2001, and 22 604 between April 1999 and March 2000.