Two toddlers, aged five and four were raped as Child Protection Week drew to a close last week.
The incidents took place in Ikageng last Sunday and Monday respectively.
According to Sgt Kelebogile Trom, the Ikageng SAPS spokesperson, the mother of a 5-year-old girl reported that her daughter had been raped by someone they knew on Sunday.
She told the police that her daughter had come back from visiting her grandmother. As the child walked towards her, the mother could see that something wrong by the way she was walking. When she questioned the little girl, she said she had been injured.
The mother took her to the bedroom to examine her and found something that looked like semen on her thighs. ‘The victim revealed to her mother that someone familiar to her had raped her,’ reported Trom.
https://www.citizen.co.za/potchefstroom-herald/29516/increase-rape-teen-girls-ikageng-causes-concern/
In Marikana, Promosa the following day, an unknown suspect allegedly raped a 4-year-old girl.
Trom says the child’s grandmother was bathing her when she noticed a suspicious discharge and bruises on the child’s thighs.
She suspected that something may have happened and took her to the doctor. The doctor then referred them to Thuthuzela Crisis Centre. ‘The suspect is unknown,’ said Trom.
Child Protection Week is commemorated annually between 28 May and 4 June.
Trom says one of the rights of children contained in the Bill of Rights is that they must be free to be children and be allowed to play.
https://www.citizen.co.za/potchefstroom-herald/10871/8-year-old-boy-raped-in-bushes/
In addition, ‘every child has the right to be protected from neglect, abuse and degradation.’
Despite that, young children still fall prey to sexual abuse countrywide.
Last year, Nadia van der Walt from STOP (Stop the Trafficking of People) delivered a presentation on body safety at Kids’ Garden Daycare Centre.
It was aimed at teaching children about the different kinds of touching and areas that are off-limits. ‘If we can teach the children at a young age and make them aware of what is right and what is wrong regarding their own bodies, we can take away that vulnerability and protect them against trafficking attempts,’ she said.
https://www.citizen.co.za/potchefstroom-herald/20071/rape-spirals-out-of-control-in-ikageng/
