Urgent action needed to fight violence against children

ON WORLD Children’s Day (November 20), we must remember that for many children in South Africa, childhood is interrupted by fear, violence and silence. Too many face sexual exploitation, domestic abuse and gender-based violence in the places meant to nurture them: homes, schools, and neighbourhoods. To honour children’s rights, we cannot wait. We must act.

- BRIDGET MACHAKA

Crisis

The scale of violence against children in South Africa is staggering. Writing for IOL, journalist Yasmine Jacobs reported recently that an estimated 1 656 children were killed in the 2023-2024 period. Reporting for The Star, journalist Xolile Mtembu noted that between January and March 2025 alone, 314 children were murdered.

Meanwhile, psychologist Dr Guru Kistnasamy warns that “one in three children” experience physical or sexual violence before the age of 18. Yet even these grim figures may understate the crisis. The statistics themselves are incomplete and contested.

Children depend on adults for protection and often cannot speak out. Perpetrators are frequently people they know: family members, neighbours, and school staff. A recent government statement flagged a troubling trend of parents commercially exploiting their children. The home is not always a safe haven. Children’s physical, emotional, cognitive development makes the consequences of violence even greater: trauma, dropping out of school, early pregnancy, preventable diseases, lost opportunities and lifelong scars.

Laws and policies