Young boy (5) hanged from tree
Missing boy (12) found mutilated
Local police search for missing deaf boy
THERE is a sickness which has a grip on our community and it is our innocents who suffer.
The discovery of the mutilated body of a young boy in the bush in KwaDabeka has sent shock waves through the community and caused panic to many parents fearing for the safety of their children.
The shocking fact about this murder is that this poor 13-year-old was decapitated, an arm amputated and his eyes and internal organs removed.
There are whispers that this was a muti killing. There are reports that a container of blood was found nearby.
Before this outrage there was the devastating discovery of the body of a 6-year-old boy hanged from a tree in Mariannhill followed a few months later by the murder of a four-year-old girl in the same area.
One of the perpetrators of the hanging was brought to book, the other is still to stand trial. But the four-year-old is all but forgotten, with no progress, none that we know of anyway, being made to track down her killer.
On top of all this horror a nine-year-old deaf boy has been missing since 25 March. He was last seen playing outside his Clermont home on that day.
The child is described as “slightly” autistic. He does not speak. Where is he?
Police and the step-father of the deaf child searched the area where the mutilated teenager was found, looking for the body of the deaf boy, because there had been reports of a bad odour in another part of the bush. The child was not found
It is hard to imagine the anguish of the parents, wanting this nightmare to be over, wanting closure on the disappearance of their child and yet hoping and praying that they will not find his body. No body may mean that he is still alive, but where could a nine-year-old deaf, mute child be for all this time?
Another puzzling aspect of this trauma is that we, as a community, or silent about the disappearance and massacre of our children. Where are the voices raised in protest? Why are we not searching for who could be demanding the body parts of a child and for what purpose? What dark deeds are we turning a blind eye to?
The disappearance of one child in other parts of the world causes an uproar of immense proportions. People get involved, people demand that the police do something. It makes international news. Everyone knows who Maddie McCann is. Do you know who Ndumiso Mbutho is? Do the police?
Perhaps the police are too bogged down with murders, mayhem and hijackings to worry about this disappearance. But now they have a murder on their hands. Perhaps two.
Often the question is asked about how parents can allow their children to play on the streets unattended, how children are left without supervision. It is easy to ask that question from a position of privilege. It is easy to point fingers. But the truth is that a large percentage of working parents have no option but to leave their children to their own devices. Often support systems have broken down and there is no money for child care.
Our fragmented society needs to come together to formulate ways to keep our children safe, such as a granny network, after school care. We also need to teach our children that the world can be brutal and not to go off with people who offer treats, or claim to have been sent by parents.
Keep these traumatised parents in your thoughts and prayers, they need the comfort of a caring community.
