South Africa

South Africa, Maverick News

Attacks on children — the scourge of violent crime affecting SA’s most vulnerable

Students and civic groups march to the Gqeberha High Court demanding justice for Cwecwe on April 03, 2025 in Gqeberha, South Africa. It is reported that Cwecwe was raped last year, allegedly on school property at Bergview College in the Eastern Cape. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Lulama Zenzile)

By Tamsin Metelerkamp and Vincent Cruywagen

29 May 2025

As South Africa enters Child Protection Week, recent high-profile incidents of violence against children cast long shadows over advocacy efforts. For every such crime spotlighted by media or civil society organisations, many others appear to go unnoticed and unpunished. Daily Maverick will be publishing a series of articles throughout Child Protection Week to highlight this crisis.

‘Mother sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for murder of three-year-old.”

“Teacher sentenced to life imprisonment for rape of a learner in class during school hours.”

“Two life sentences for a father who exploited his daughter in a child pornography operation.”

“Gang members sentenced to 35 years for child murder.”

These are lines from National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) media releases issued in recent weeks. There have been more than 25 statements involving child victims in the past month alone.

The crimes against the children in these cases have been heard and deliberated on in a court of law, but for many minor victims of murder, attempted murder, sexual offences and assault, justice remains out of reach.

As South Africa enters Child Protection Week (29 May to 5 June), recent high-profile incidents of violence against children cast long shadows over advocacy efforts.

These include the cases of Joshlin Smith, whose whereabouts remain unknown after her mother and two others were convicted of kidnapping and selling the then six-year-old in the Western Cape; and *Cwecwe, a seven-year-old girl from the Eastern Cape whose alleged rape has yet to be taken on for prosecution by the NPA, due to “insufficient evidence” in the case docket originally presented by the police.

children violence Students and civic groups march to the Gqeberha High Court, demanding justice for Cwecwe on 3 April 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Lulama Zenzile)

This photo of Joshlin Smith leaves her grandmother Amanda Daniels-Smith in tears. (Photo: Supplied)

Statistics – lessons and limitations

The South African Police Service’s (SAPS) annual crime reports show a rise in reported cases of certain contact crimes against children in recent years. Between 2021/22 and 2023/24, the number of recorded child murders rose by 383, from 1,273 to 1,656. In the same period, attempted murders rose by 442, from 1,371 to 1,813; and cases of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm rose by 196, from 7,575 to 7,771.

Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, mother of missing Joshlin, leads police to the home where Joshlin lived and from which she disappeared. (Photo: Vincent Cruywagen)

Read more: Guilty: Smith, Appollis and Van Rhyn convicted in Joshlin Smith case

Read more: NPA decision not to prosecute in ‘Cwecwe’ child rape case slammed by social justice groups

The total reported sexual offences committed against children dropped by 1,542 between 2021/22 and 2023/24, from 23,379 to 21,837.

These statistics are shocking, but they are only one part of the story. They don’t show the unreported cases, the social ills that leave children vulnerable to abuse or the scars that survivors of childhood violence are made to bear for a lifetime.

Luke Lamprecht, head of advocacy for the Gauteng-based nonprofit Women and Men Against Child Abuse, noted that in cases such as crimes of sexual violence against children, the number of incidents reported to police were only a fraction of those shown to be occurring through research.

“A lot of people don’t go to the police, and that’s for lots of very complicated reasons – largely because of a lack of faith in the system, which I believe to be the primary reason. Then there’s obviously issues like threats and inaccessibility,” he explained.

“Of those that were reported, we’re getting a conviction rate somewhere in the vicinity of… between 4% and 7%... That translates into the amount of people on the sex offender register.”

The challenge of using SAPS statistics as an indicator of crime levels against children was that the numbers were often “simply a measure of the amount of faith people have in our system”, continued Lamprecht.

“In fact, if the stats decrease it’s a bad thing. It means less people are reporting – because I can guarantee you, it’s not that less children are being abused,” he said.

It is difficult to determine whether there has been a rise in violence against children without a recent nationally representative survey, according to Professor Catherine Ward, director of the Centre for Social Science Research at the University of Cape Town.

“Service providers find increases for a variety of reasons, sometimes for good reasons where parents are reporting,” she said, adding that violence against children was an ongoing problem in South Africa.

children violence Protesters on Mary Fitzgerald Square in Johannesburg take part in a gender-based violence and femicide demonstration on 8 April 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Alet Pretorius)

Escalating brutality against children

Some children’s advocates reported observing increases in certain forms of violence against children in recent years, based on their organisations’ engagements with victims and cases.

Patric Solomons, director of the nonprofit Molo Songololo in the Western Cape, said there appeared to have been an increase in the number of “very violent crimes” against children, including those involving children committing crimes against other minors.

Molo Songololo provides direct support and social services to children who are victims of crime, including sexual violence and trafficking, in Atlantis, Delft, Beaufort West and the surrounding areas.

“We also find that there is an increase in particular kinds of crime as things shift and change within society. For example, at the moment, one of the things that we see is that access to children [is] not only on the physical level... but also online… Online crime has increased as more and more children have access to devices… They can access people, and people who intend to harm them also have access to them,” he explained.

“We found that in certain areas where there’s high levels of dysfunction and violence in general, and also organised gangs, there tend to be spikes when crime happens… These spikes often increase when there’s a rivalry among gangs.”

Lamprecht echoed Solomons’s concerns about the dangers of internet access for children, highlighting the “frightening” volume of child sexual abuse material emerging online.

“If I look just at my work, what has definitely increased… is the level of violence in children’s homes that has led to the torture, sexual abuse and death,” he continued, citing the case of two-year-old Chevonne Rusch, whose mother, alongside her boyfriend, was convicted of the torture and murder of Chevonne in the Johannesburg High Court in late 2023.

“The level of brutality is definitely increasing.”

Rochelle Botha and Stefan van Niekerk appear at Johannesburg High Court for sentencing in the murder of Chevonne Rusch (2) on 29 April 2024. (Photo: Gallo Images / Beeld / Deaan Vivier)

Stefan van Niekerk and Rochelle Botha were found guilty of the murder of two-year-old Chevonne Rusch (pictured) in the Johannesburg High Court on 17 November 2023, according to Women and Men Against Child Abuse. (Photo: Supplied)

Other trends Lamprecht noted were an increase in adult female sexual offenders targeting boys, and a rise in the number of foetuses and newborns abandoned on the streets of Johannesburg.

“Children go missing every five hours in this country, and that’s the ones that are reported on. The ones that get thrown away in the streets here in Joburg, where I work, those children aren’t even reported as missing because no one bothered reporting that they were alive,” he said.

Policing and prosecution constraints

Solomons said that while there had been improvements to law enforcement services in South Africa, there remained “big gaps” when it came to the protection of children.

“Often the police lack resources… Because of the targeting of police, we’ve seen that police sometimes don’t go into a particular area, or the medical teams don’t go into a particular area, because they themselves get targeted. So, it’s a very complex situation that we find ourselves in,” he explained.

South Africa was a country of “limitless needs and limited resources”, said Lamprecht, with constraints on tackling violence against children at all levels, including in prevention, early intervention and statutory aftercare.

“We have got absolutely brilliant police officers, prosecutors, doctors, forensic pathologists, judges, etc… When I’m in the high court and in these cases, there’s brilliant investigation; pathologists and doctors are brilliant; all the witnesses and professionals are treated well… But then you get to Correctional Services and there’s a whole other parole drama that starts rearing its head… Then you go to the magistrates’ court, and it is sheer, unadulterated chaos… It’s like they’re not even the same system,” he said.

The Teddy Bear Foundation, an NGO providing services for victims of child abuse, released statistics in March 2025 showing that, of 5,385 cases handled by its court preparation programme between 2019 and 2024, just 4% had resulted in a conviction, according to a TimesLIVE report.

Daily Maverick asked the NPA about the conviction rates for crimes against children but had not received a response by the time of publishing.

Students and civic groups march to the Gqeberha High Court demanding justice for Cwecwe on 3 April 2025. (Photo: Gallo Images / Die Burger / Lulama Zenzile)

Underlying social issues

The children Molo Songololo works with, most of whom fall between the ages of 12 and 17, are often vulnerable to abuses due to factors such as identity issues, peer pressure and disempowerment within broader society, according to Solomons.

“There’s a whole lot of risk… within broader society and how we deal with adolescence. For one, adolescents are not supposed to speak back. They’re not supposed to have their own opinions. They’re often blamed for when something goes wrong with them,” he said.

“When young people do push back, whether it is with parents, in the family, at school… then they are labelled as disruptive or rude… That combination where family adults and society, generally, on one level want them to behave like adults... and at another level still treat them as kids with no power… presents a kind of vulnerability and puts them at risk.”

Other social issues that Solomons identified as contributing towards children’s vulnerability to crime were poverty and unemployment, poor or lacking parenting and a shortage of safe spaces within health and education structures.

Lamprecht pointed to substance abuse as a significant risk factor when it came to violent crimes against children in the home.

Childhood in Crisis

This is a special Daily Maverick editorial project exposing the brutal realities of child abuse, neglect, and systemic failure - and what needs to change.

Over the coming days, we’ll be publishing a series of in-depth articles.

Keep checking this page for the latest stories in the series.

Creating safer spaces

In addressing high rates of violence against children, Solomons advocated for services within communities that provided ongoing support for children who experienced abuse.

“When something bad happens to a child, or a parent tries to find help for a child, there needs to be effective support and help… [for] parents and children to know exactly what their rights are, what happened to them, and understand how they can be part of the healing and empowerment process. Then you get a better result. You don’t get children who accept their abuse and just go through a cycle of abuse,” he said, adding that services needed to go into the homes of affected families.

“The other thing that I think is very important is, of course, poverty alleviation... things like job creation, income into the family and sustainable food security for children.”

Lamprecht emphasised that a relationship with a parent remained the “single most protective factor” against harm for a child. He added that in cases where children were harmed, parents should be able to rely on a functional justice system for support.

“You need to want your children… Most children get hurt by people very, very close to them. You need to be aware of the dangers to your children. We need to not live in a world where we teach children to say no to adults. We should live in a world where children don’t have to say no to adults, and if adults misbehave, the other adults take that on,” he said. DM

*Cwecwe is a pseudonym assigned to the child victim in this case.

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