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Make It Count!
by Heather MacKay
Newsflash October 2001:
A 9-month old baby girl is in a serious condition in hospital in Upington after having been raped.
Newsflash October 2001:
"Raped baby faces series of operations" Daily News 30 October 2001
On my morning route, I leaned against my car on the side of the road, retching, trying to put the images out of my mind. I can imagine very well what that baby must have gone through, for my daughter is about the same age. In my office, I cried for two hours. And then I got angry. Angry enough to do something, angry enough to want my voice heard. Yes, I have been and am angry at the child abuse that we see every day in this country? items appear frequently in the television news or on the second page of the newspaper, and then disappear just as quickly, replaced by the latest gossip from the Big Brother house, or conjecture on how certain people in high places acquire their luxury cars, or details of the President's latest jaunt abroad. Yes, I do my northern suburbs best, which doesn't seem like much - I send a cheque to the Children's Home each Christmas; I give my daughter's outgrown baby clothes to Cotlands; I faithfully put my loose change in the collecting tins of groups fighting against abuse of women and children; I pay my taxes. Apart from that, I try to ignore the vicious cycle of violence which has gripped every part of our society, because to admit it would be to admit the fear, and then to have to live with that same fear which haunts women and girls in every township, every day. But this now, I cannot ignore, and I want my voice heard.
I spent the rest of the day on the Internet, using all the resources at my privileged fingertips to find a way to make my voice heard. I looked up the email addresses and telephone numbers of all the senior politicians in the country, at national level and in the Northern Cape Province. I made a list of contacts that includes leaders of all the political parties in Parliament. I searched for every listed NGO or community group in this country which deals with abuse of women and children. Along the way I read a lot of research articles, most of which said the same thing: the violence in our society, especially that against women and children, is a legacy of apartheid. Apparently, black men who were disempowered by the apartheid system could only take their frustrations out instead on women and children. Then after apartheid, they were further disempowered by unemployment in our weak economy. More frustration, more violence. The articles failed to explain satisfactorily why there are also white men who abuse children in this country in the most sickening way, or maybe I just didn't read for long enough.
Poor victims of society, unable to help themselves, unable to stop themselves. What rubbish. We no longer live under apartheid. We have a government of the people, for the people, supposedly democratically elected by the people for the purpose of serving the people of this country. I rejoiced along with many others to see apartheid dismantled, I revelled in the new sense of freedom in the early days of Nelson Mandela's presidency. But we can no longer allow our politicians and government to use that tired old excuse of the "legacy of apartheid". We have a new government, a new society ? our laws and our government should reflect that we cannot and will not tolerate such vicious abuse of human beings by other human beings. Our President's dream of the African Renaissance is pie in the sky for as long as ordinary people in this country (and others in Africa) can carry out such extraordinary acts of cruelty. I am deeply ashamed to be an African in a society in which children are treated in this way. It's time our government and our leaders tackled the hard issues, the big issues, the ones that really count. Like child abuse. I'm tired of hearing bland statements about how shocking it all is: let's see some concrete actions instead. Or let's have a new government. We the people have the power to do that, if we want it enough.
I tried, through the not inconsiderable resources of the Internet, to find out how something like this could happen, how all these shocking cases of child abuse could occur in our wonderful new society. I learned that some laws have been revised and some new legislation passed. Clearly it's not enough. I learned that the police and the judiciary have been through special training to deal with cases of abuse. Clearly it's not enough. I read that some (only some, not all) judges are passing down the heaviest sentences they can on child abusers. Clearly it isn't an effective deterrent. I learned that there have been extensive awareness and education programmes aimed at preventing exactly this kind of horror. Clearly they have failed.
I want the President to explain why his government can spend between 40 billion and 60 billion rands, depending on which newspaper you read, on high-tech first-world weaponry, but we cannot afford to implement the provisions of the UN convention on the rights of the child.
I want the Minister of Finance to explain why, once the big boys have their shiny new toys - warships, fighter planes and Mercedes Benzes - there isn't enough money left over to increase policing, enforce the laws, change the laws if need be, provide safe places for children, and fund organisations that care for children when their parents can't or won't.
I want the Minister of Education to explain what he is doing to teach boys at school level that violence against women and children is not acceptable in our society, and that children are to be protected at all costs.
I want the Minister of Justice to explain why we don't, several years after our wonderful new Constitution with its Bill of Rights, have adequate laws which send a clear message to those contemplating carrying out this kind of atrocity that they will be punished timeously in full measure, and that the punishment will fit the crime.
I want the government of the Northern Cape Province to tell me exactly how they plan to bring this matter to justice, and how they will keep us all informed of the progress and outcome of the case.
I want the leaders of the opposition political parties to question, to shout, to make this a priority issue.
I want every woman in South Africa, no matter what her colour, no matter what her social or economic circumstance, whether she has children or not, to rise up in anger and let her voice be heard. Women make up 52% of the electorate, so why do we still live in a society in which these things happen?
I want that child's grandmother to know that every woman in South Africa (and every decent man) stands with her in this dark time.
I want you to send this message to every woman you know, and for those you know who don't have email, talk to them. I want us all to stand up and be counted. Let our anger be heard.
Talk to your councillors and your elected representatives in this great new democracy. Demand action from them, not platitudes. Don't let this case be pushed out of the headlines and forgotten. Stop in your daily lives, look inside, look at our society and see what we have become. And then speak out.
Thank you for listening. Make it count.
Heather MacKay
And then? A lot of angry people around the world, a meeting with some of the key players in the child abuse field, and one year later in October 2002, The Volunteer Child Network Database was born. Find it, support it at http://www.volunteerchildnetwork.org.
Heather MacKay is an environmental scientist, specialising in management of aquatic ecosystems, water law and policy. After completing graduate studies in Oceanography in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, she moved to Johannesburg in 1992, where she now lives with her daughter (aged 2).
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