The residents of Mpheni Block D voiced their concern about what they describe as the escalation in cases of physical child abuse and negligence. This follows the torture of two minors by their mothers recently, when a 10-year-old girl was slashed on the hand with a panga, and both hands of a 10-year-old boy were burnt on a stove.
Residents are now pleading for their own victim-empowerment organisation to be established.
One of the residents, who wished to remain anonymous, explained that the young girl and her mother had had a fight before she was injured. She claimed that the mother had been intoxicated at the time of the incident. Afterwards, the child was handed over to one of the local leaders, Mr David Ndou, who drove her to the nearest clinic.
"When I asked the child why her drunk mother had injured her hand with a panga, she told me that she had taken some money from her mother. I was not surprised as it was social grant payment day," she said.
Vhakoma Vho-Shonisani Netshidzati of Mulweli Section said that the mother who burnt both her son's hands on a stove claimed that he had stolen some of her sugar. Apparently, this same mother also used to beat her children with a wire cable.
Netshidzati said a homeless alcoholic mother in their village also neglected her one-year-old infant. "She is always at the tavern drinking alcohol with her baby, who is always half naked and hungry. She also reported that her Sassa grant card was taken by one of the local loan sharks whom she borrowed money from," she said.
Ndou added: "We are also dealing with several other cases where children are being abused, like the one where a woman is known to abuse her deceased aunt's orphaned children," he said.
The media liaison officer of the Department of Social Development, Mr Joshua Kwapa, encouraged the public to take part in the fight against child abuse. "It is tough to explain how to discipline a child. But as the department, we are opposing any sort of abuse, since it causes long-term harm to children," he said.