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THURSDAY 21 November 2013 | 0021 910 6500 | Fax: 021 910 6501/06 | Email: post@peoplespost.co.za | Website: www.peoplespost.co.za | Mobisite: ppost.mobi
FEELING FESTIVE: Mayor Patricia de Lille on Tues day conducted a test run of the city’s festive lights, which will brighten Adderley Street from Sunday 1 December. She was joined by local enter tainers Goodluck, Jimmy Nevis, The Rockets, Selim Kagee and carnival char acters who provided a preview to what Capeto nians can expect at the free public concert at the Grand Parade ahead of the switchon which will take place at 20:30. PHO TO: TARRENLEE HABELGAARN
CRIME: PARENTS AND CAREGIVERS HESITANT TO GO TO POLICE
Children’s dirty games
LAILA MAJIET @laila_newsie
Children as young as eight are performing oral sex on each other while at school. This is the startling reality social workers at an anti-abuse organisation have discovered. And while these children should be playing with dolls and toy cars, they are instead dangerously intrigued by sex and promiscuity. Corinne Combrink, child protection organisation Safeline’s intake officer, says sexually inappropriate behaviour at schools in Beacon Valley and Tafelsig is on the rise. “The teachers will catch them in the act and report it to us,” she says. Teachers and principals in this area have been committed to working with the NGO to address the problem, but parents are in deni-
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al of their child’s actions, Combrink maintains. “Parents do not want to believe their child may be involved in inappropriate acts especially when they were not able to pick up any signs prior to the incident,” she adds. A principal at a Beacon Valley primary school spoke to People’s Post on condition of anonymity. He says there have been many incidents of sexually inappropriate behaviour between pupils at his school. The principal of another Beacon Valley primary school claims to have had no such incidents. Unemployment and overcrowding are two of the possible contributors to sexually inappropriate behaviour among children. Safeline director Rochelle Philander says: “Cases of backyard dwellers’ children being raped by the landlord is becoming more prevalent. Because backyarders use the toilet inside the main house, it provides land-
lords with a window of opportunity to rape unsuspecting children.” Colleen Horswell, chairperson of the Mitchell’s Plain Education Forum, says similar reports have surfaced in Strandfontein. “We are especially concerned about this practice as the school holidays draw near. We can only keep children occupied for so long and that does not even root out the causes.” Horswell says some of the causes include children sharing the same bed as their parents. Safeline has further found the number of rape cases involving children is on the up. The organisation has treated over 390 children this year alone, compared to the total of 250 minors assisted at the facility in 2012. Alarming statistics indicate children between the ages of two and eight are abused for up to four years before it is reported, Phi-
lander insists. “The justice system has failed the people. Children younger than five are not able to testify and as a result many cases of child rape are withdrawn. The child is put back into the environment where the perpetrator is and the abuse continues,” Philander says. Six out of seven children referred to Safeline never come for counselling due to parental complacency, Philander says. Blanche Olivier works at Safeline’s Mitchell’s Plain office and says with most child rape cases the perpetrator is often a relative. “This is why parents struggle to come forward. In the instance the perpetrator is the mother’s boyfriend or husband, she may worry about the impact reporting the case will have on her family’s financial stability when the perpetrator is the sole breadwinner.” Call Safeline on (021) 376 0308.
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