Violence against women and children has dominated South African newspaper headlines and radio chat shows.
Research on the extent of child sexual abuse in South Africa is scarce and where information is available, the numbers vary widely.
However, a study conducted between September 2013 and February 2015 has provided new insight into the sexual abuse of children in South Africa.
The Optimus Study was conducted by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention and the University of Cape Town’s Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit as well as its psychology department.
Researchers asked 4,086 school children and 5,631 children out of school – all between the ages of 15 and 17 – about various forms of abuse they had experienced.
The study found that 35.4% of the young people interviewed in schools had been sexually abused at some point in their lives.
In comparison, 26.3% of those interviewed in their homes said they had ever experienced sexual abuse.
Extrapolating this figure, the study estimated that at least 784,967 young people aged 15 to 17 in South Africa have been sexually abused.
Essentially the study found that one in 3 South African children reported some form of sexual abuse by their 17th birthday.
In September of this year, a young 14-year-old girl finally came out with the truth about what happened to her inside of the church building which she knows so well.
In June of 2018, this young girl was sent to her neighbour’s house by her grandmother as her neighbour was supposed to help her to fill in some forms which she needed for school.
The neighbour then convinced the young girl to walk with him to the nearby church, where he promised that he would fill out the forms.
Once inside of the church, the neighbour started telling the young girl how beautiful she was and how much he loved her.
When she didn’t respond to his affections, he forcibly took her hand and placed it on his thigh – before proceeding to molest her.
A case was opened with Witbank SAPS, however no arrest has been affected at the time of publication.
