Published on : 04/06/2022 – 17:43
In South Africa, the crime statistics, with an explosion in the number of violent crimes, are frightening. More than 6,800 people were killed in the first three months of the year, an increase of 22% compared to the same period the previous year.
« Nothing can justify such terrible numbers “, lamented the Minister of the Interior. Children are particularly victims of this resurgence of violence, with 306 deaths in the first three months of the year, an increase of 37.2%, a distressing figure for Divya Naidoo, of the NGO Save the Children in Africa. du Sud, joined by RFI.
« South Africa is a very violent society. We accept corporal punishment and hitting children all the time. So when you look at the statistics on child murders, many could be the result of physical punishment gone wrong, does she think. It is also the continuation of the Covid period: during the confinements, many South Africans lost their jobs and the stress increased, there was an escalation: people became violent in their homes because it is the behavior they are accustomed to in responding to stress. As for solutions, there are several programs that really work. So we tell the government to look at how it uses these funds. For the moment, this money is largely directed towards the services which intervene once the abuses have been committed. So we, the organizations for the defense of children’s rights, we say that we must look more towards prevention programs. »
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