With 18 reported cases of rape by children against children in the Northern Cape, urgent education and measures need to be put in place to address this scourge, says the provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Koliwa Otola.
WITH 18 reported cases of rape by children against children in the Northern Cape, urgent education and measures need to be put in place to address this scourge.
This is according to the Northern Cape provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Koliwa Otola, who was speaking this week at the release of the provincial 2nd Quarter 2023/24 Crime Statistics.
Otola said 23 children in the Province have been arrested on charges of rape against other minors.
“Eighteen cases of rape of children by children have been reported in the Province for this quarter. In these cases, we found that the victim is a child and the perpetrator is a child. Out of those reported cases, 23 children have been arrested. The youngest victim in these cases was a four-year-old and the youngest perpetrator was 12 years old,” said Otola.
She said that in the majority of the cases, the victim and the perpetrator were related or acquainted.
“In most of these cases, the children knew each other. It is either they are family members, children at youth centres or they are learners. There was only one case where the offender was unknown to the victim.
Otola stressed that serious attention needs to be paid to the matter,
“We need to pay serious attention to this scourge and must educate our communities. If a four-year-old child is raped by another minor, it is worrisome. We need to investigate why children are getting involved in such matters. We also need to look at the home environment and the role that parents play in the lives of their children. If a four-year-old is raped, where was the parent; and if a 12-year-old is a suspect of rape, where was the parent? We need to address this with urgency,” she said.
Otola said that with 92 police stations in the Province, there has been a reported increase in contact crime, with the exception of murder cases, which have seen a decline this quarter.
“With the exception of reported murder cases. which has decreased with eight cases for this quarter, other contact crimes such as rape, robbery, attempted sexual assault, attempted murder and assault to do grievous bodily harm (GBH) have increased.
“We have also seen an increase in car-jackings and robberies at residential premises for this quarter,” added Otola.
She said further that there has also been an increase in contact-related crimes in the Province.
“Contact-related crimes are offences such as arson and malicious damage to property. Those crimes are often related to domestic violence and public violence protests. In terms of that, we have managed to decrease the broader crime, but arson has increased with one case.”
She said it has been noted that more police visibility is required as theft out of motor vehicle cases have increased, despite the category of property-related crimes showing a decrease.
“When looking at housebreakings at residences or businesses and theft out of motor vehicles, we see that those crimes have decreased. In that category, we have noted that only theft out of motor vehicles has increased. We need to pay attention to such possible cases when doing our patrols,” Otola said.
She said two of the top five police stations that have recorded the highest reports of contact crimes in the Province are located in the Diamond City.
“Mothibistad, Kimberley, Kuruman, Roodepan and Postmasburg have shown a high number of reported murder cases. The causes of the reported murder cases have shown that they are a result of arguments and fighting. The consumption of alcohol was also a factor during the commission of these crimes.
“Most of the murders are domestic related or people who know each other, or even people who were gathering. The gathering place is not always a tavern, but was also committed in the vicinity of a tavern or when people were moving toward or leaving the tavern,” Otola said.
The Northern Cape MEC for Safety and Liaison, Nomandla Bloem, supported the call on parents to take an active interest in their children’s lives.
“Parents need to take responsibility for their children and be at all times aware of their whereabouts as well as conduct. There seems to be no spirit of Ubuntu in our society. We also need our communities to be aware of the things our youth and children are exposed to on social media and in our society. We cannot ‘outsource’ parental responsibility and we as a society must refrain from consuming alcohol when in the presence of children,” said Bloem.
