Potchefstroom - The SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in the North West on Saturday urged communities to unite in action to stamp out child abuse and violence against children.
Sanco expressed shock and condemned the brutal and fatal beating of a five-year-old Bloemhof girl who was allegedly beaten to death because she wet herself while sleeping.
“There is no justification for such a horrendous and an outrageous act that has robbed an innocent child of her life in what was suppose to be a safe environment. We are calling for a stiff sentence for the alleged 29-year-old perpetrator to serve as a deterrent,” Sanco North West chairman Paul Sebegoe said.
He expressed concern about increasing incidents of child abuse which he said had been proven to put abused children at greater risk of suicide, HIV, chronic diseases, crime, and drug abuse, as well as serious mental health problems.
He urged communities to unite in action to stamp out child abuse and violence against children.
“Early detection will protect children who are lately victimised as a result of domestic disputes, conflicts between feuding couples, as well as abusive partners,” Sebegoe said.
According to police, the little girl was asleep on a couch made up for her as a bed in Boitumelong township on Wednesday when her mother’s boyfriend saw she had wet herself and the urine had run into the couch.
“He became frustrated and started hitting her with a belt,” Sergeant Kelebogile Moleko said.
He allegedly tied her to a support structure in the house, lashed her, untied her, and threw her to the floor. When the mother tried to intervene she too was assaulted.
Police and paramedics were called, but they were too late to save the little girl.
She had been too severely injured and was declared dead on the scene.
The man, who was in police custody, was expected to appear in the Bloemhof Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
African News Agency