Pretoria - Cry the beloved children. The city and the country have seen a spate of child killings, the most recent being the rape and murder of cousins Yonelisa, 2, and Zandile Mali, 3, in Diepsloot.
Their bodies were found in a communal toilet days after they went missing on October 12.
This led to angry residents taking to the streets in protest.
Five suspects have been arrested and face charges of kidnapping, rape and murder.
Two weeks ago in the same township, the body of a two-week-old boy was found floating in a stream.
In September, the body of Anelise Mkhondo, 5, was found on a rubbish heap – again in that township. One of the suspects held for the murder of the Mali cousins has been linked to this murder.
On the East Rand, a mother of two is being held for poisoning her two young children.
Pretoria News, in light of this string of slayings, asked experts what the reasons for the raping and killing of children could be.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Bulletin, released in August, says the rate of child homicide in the country is more than double the global average.
The epidemiology of child homicides in South Africa is the first study of its kind in the country on the murder of children, and is based on 2009 statistics from state mortuaries.
Between January and December 2009, 1 018 children were murdered – that is 5.5 in every 100 000 children under 18.
This is close to the rate in other sub-Saharan countries, but the global average, the WHO says, is less than half the South African average – 2.4 children in every 100 000.
The study found child abuse and neglect were related in three-quarters of all murders of girls.
Overall, most murders of children under 18 were in public spaces (45.9 percent) or in the child’s home (34 percent) and girls (44 percent) were more likely than boys (28 percent) to be killed at home.
Dr Fraser McNeill, a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Pretoria, said child homicide was a result of a “crisis of masculinity” in the country.
“This way of looking at it takes us away from trying to find explanations by looking at individual people’s direct motivations – and unsubstantiated rumours of ritual murder – and towards a more holistic understanding,” he said. McNeill said inequality, unemployment and poverty had consequences for people in society.
“The killing of children evokes a particularly emotional response.
“It goes without saying that those responsible should be severely punished.
“But there must be an attempt to understand the wider context. In a society in which the majority are structurally excluded from significant material benefits, while a very small elite practise excessive conspicuous consumption, we must expect social consequences.”
McNeill said men, even in modern times, wanted to feel like men, and certain problems in society barred men from their “manhood”.
“Ideas of what it means to be(come) a ‘real man’ have not changed. A man is expected to have children, raise them well, have a house, drive a car and so forth. When the means by which men can do this are cut from them through rising unemployment, we must expect social consequences.”
Researchers in The epidemiology of child homicides in South Africa study found a high rate of child murders involving sexual assault. This reflected the high prevalence of sexual violence in the country.
Social worker, Dr Amelia Kleijn, conducted her doctoral research in profiling 10 convicted child rapists and determining their backgrounds and reasons for their actions.
Her sample was small, but Kleijn’s research gives insight into the circumstances rapists had faced as children. In her research she found the rapists lived in conditions with poor community and social cohesion, which many believe can influence violence against children.
Kleijn said all of them experienced physical and verbal abuse and physical neglect during their childhood.
The rapists had also reported bad relationships with older men in their lives and had been neglected in many ways as children, including not getting enough food.
The rapists said they had lived in overcrowded, noisy and stressful living conditions. They had also witnessed violent behaviour and sexual activity between older people and had been subjected to corporal punishment.
They had all been unemployed for at least two years at the time they raped children. None of them had completed their schooling, which limited career opportunities.
Kleijn’s research said the rapists felt anger, directed at adults, on the days they raped young children. They claimed some children were related to the subjects of their anger.
Because of deprivation and maltreatment as children, the men raped children in what Kleijn called spontaneous acts of violence after years of suppressing their feelings.
The rapes were not premeditated but a response to various other provocations.
Responses from the rapists had indicated they raped children to get revenge, directed at family members, sexual partners or other men.
Some had also reported binge drinking before raping children.
Kleijn advised parents to always be aware of where their children were and who they are with.
“Children need careful and constant supervision. The 10 men in my study described how they accessed very young children, highlighting that some children are left without adequate supervision. So step one is to be absolutely sure of who young children are left with.”
Provincial police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said communities should look after their children. “Residents can assist by looking after each other’s children and adopt the concept of ‘your child is my child’. Parental guidance is important and people should engage their children and teach them not to walk or go with strangers.”
Mbuyiselo Botha of Sonke Gender Justice said residents must help keep children safe and ensure child killers are brought to book. People needed to blow the whistle on child killers and not look the other way. They needed to police their neighbourhoods and adopt an attitude of being their “neighbour’s keeper”.
Pretoria News