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By Akani Nkuna
The Department of Social Development has thrown its support behind the growing Justice for Cwecwe campaign, which has sparked nationwide outrage and calls for justice.
The movement, marked by demonstrations and protests across the country, has gained momentum, seeking accountability and fairness for a seven-year-old pupil, who has been named Cwecwe. She was raped at Bergview College in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape.
“From shocking revelations currently emerging in the Joshlin Smith’s case to the mind-numbing brutal rape of a seven-year-old Cwecwe, alleged at Bergview College in the Eastern Cape, child protection is higher than ever on the public agenda and in the public conscience.
“We join the nation in calling for justice for Cwecwe and emphasising that justice delayed is justice denied,” Social Development Minister Nokuzula Sisisi told reporters on Wednesday.
Sisisi was addressing the media on the upcoming Africa Children’s Summit in Johannesburg later this week.
She said that the department recognised the growing support from South Africans for the Cwecwe family, and that social development had been working with the family since October last year when the rape happened.
“All the necessary psycho-social support services were rendered to both the child and her family. Social workers including a forensic social worker are working closely with the South African Police Service to bring the culprit to book and all relevant involved stakeholders,” she added.
Sisisi urged Police Minster Senzo Mchunu to take immediate action to ensure that the perpetrator was swiftly brought to book and faced the full extent of the law.
The minister said this must not only apply to the Cwecwe case, but to all gender-based violence.
Meanwhile, Sisisi said the department was honoured to co-host the second Biennial Summit with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
She said the social sector cluster believed there was no better way to celebrate Mandela’s legacy than by elevating Africa’s children’s voices under the theme: “Seen, Heard and Engaged in Education.”
The main objectives of the summit are to promote child-centred dialogue and advocacy, empower children as agents of change, ensure inclusive and equitable participation, provide evidence-based policy recommendations, strengthen collaboration across sectors and regions on the continent, review and advance progress, raise awareness, and mobilise for national and regional action.
The minister said child participation was the core right that enabled the realisation of other rights.
Both the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Children’s Charter mandated society and the state to uphold children’s rights to influence decisions affecting them.
Furthermore, the child-led summit that would advocate for children’s involvement in policymaking, aligned with the AU Agenda 2024 and the Bogota 2024 Global Commitment to end violence against children.
“The summit creates a platform to agitate for accelerated action needed to realise the full enjoyment of the human rights and freedoms of all children on the African continent. Because it is led by children themselves, it gives them a collective voice to share their views and hold African leaders and governments to account on key issues affecting them,” said Sisisi.
“These include democracy, emerging technologies and climate change, promoting inclusive education for all children, [the] role of artificial intelligence in education, addressing school violence, gender-based violence and violence against children, amongst others.”
The event will host 17 African states and includes the participation of 1300 children aged from 10 to 17, in person and virtually.
“We have taken great care to ensure the inclusion of about 50 children with disabilities in the summit. As you are aware, children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable people on the continent,” Sisisi said.
“Recent reports point to the harsh realities of their daily lives and that children with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of sexual abuse as their non-disabled peers.”
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