In the past three years, the North East District has experienced a sharp spike in cases of child abuse, child smuggling, human trafficking, and other forms of gender-based violence.
This was revealed by North East District Council Chairperson, Mbaakanyi Smart, during a full council sitting recently.
“These incidents particularly affect children and women. In response to this challenge, council has identified a house in Masunga for upgrading and conversion into a halfway home facility,” the Council Chairperson revealed.
According to the district’s Department of Social and Community Development, authorities have registered 427 cases of child abuse alongside 265 cases of rape and defilement. Although some of these cases are already before the courts, the spiraling figures of child abuse remain a grave concern to the district’s leadership.
“This trend is a serious concern and an indication that communities are aware of what is occurring around their environments. More still needs to be done by engaging stakeholders to collaborate in fighting and ending the scourge. Cases of such a nature continue to escalate year in, year out,” noted Chief Social and Community Development Officer, Moitshephi Dibotlhale.
She said deterrent mechanisms must be intensified, alongside vigorous public education and awareness campaigns targeted at caregivers, guardians, and society at large. Furthermore, Dibotlhale lamented that many caregivers remain hesitant to report cases of child abuse, rape, or defilement, or even to seek vital medical treatment.
“All because they fear the stigma and discrimination associated with this inhumane and unbecoming behaviour. Other challenges are that adults are protecting perpetrators due to fear of losing household income and financial support. Most of the perpetrators are young adults or the elderly, and what is disheartening is that they are at times protected because they are family members to the victims,” continued the Chief Social and Community Development Officer.
She lamented that such culprits are shielded entirely in the name of salvaging family relations and preserving their public image.
“Children are being abused by close relatives, neighbours, and people with ties to their families. In our assessments, we find the minors are abused because there is a lack of proper parental care, poverty, negligence by parents, and carelessness by caregivers. In some cases, there are too many strangers in the homesteads, a lack of privacy in the house, especially in bedrooms, and the homes are severely overcrowded.”
The halfway home is earmarked to provide temporary and transitional shelter, psychosocial support, and reintegration programmes for persons declared by the courts to be in desperate need of institutional protection.
It will also offer shelter to individuals recovering from addiction, trauma, abuse, or incarceration. Authorities concluded that this initiative demonstrates the council’s deep commitment to protecting vulnerable members of the community and safeguarding overall social welfare.
