I am ashamed to stand tall and tell the world that I am a proud South African because of the negative events we wake up to every single day.
It seems waking up only means going for an update of more horrific events that happened when we were asleep or something we missed the previous day.
Two years ago when I turned 30, I decided I was ready to take up the responsibility of bringing life into this world.
I thought I was old enough to handle the challenges and pressure of motherhood and whatever curve balls the world could possibly throw in my direction.
You see, as a news woman from the age of 23, I have been exposed to grueling incidents where children were raped a few weeks after birth, found abandoned in sewage drains, killed by their mothers or snatched by someone.
I had to be strong and report on all these stories as they were, even when I felt emotionally broken day in and out.
I vowed to only take up the responsibility when I believed I was older and wiser, but in recent years it seems things are just getting worse, even to the point that this idea seems more like a gamble.
You see, last week while going through the national news wires, I came across a story of a 51-year-old teacher from KwaZulu-Natal who had sex with a teenage learner and went on to trick her into taking abortion pills after discovering she was pregnant.
While I was still shocked and trying to make sense of this story, I learnt of two teachers and a clerk from the Eastern Cape who lured three boys to their homes under the false pretense of helping them with their homework before plying them with alcohol and raping them.
Moving closer to home, on Monday we learnt about a Grade R learner from a primary school in Tsakane who was raped by four nine-year-old learners in one of the classrooms after school.
It seems waking up every morning is only to add more load to the depression of the previous day.
I really don’t know in which direction we are moving as a country.
Our children are not safe in our schools in the presence of the teachers who are supposed to be their secondary parents in our absence.
They are not safe in the company of their peers within the school premises.
They are not safe playing in the streets because they are kidnapped and killed.
They are also not safe in their own homes because statistics show their own fathers and uncles sexually violate them.
I am now sitting with my thoughts, considering if it would be a good idea to bring a soul into this world because honestly, from where I am sitting, my child might be violated at a very young age and there is nothing I can do as a mother to prevent this.
I mean, even if I carry my children on my back, I might get sexually violated with my children, that is how cruel this country has become.
Can we please take a few steps back and look from within at what our actions are doing to our children?
We are violating our children and they then end up seeing nothing wrong with violating others.
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