Girls and Boys Town Kagiso Randfontein commemorated International Children’s Day by holding a demonstrative march in Robinson on Saturday, 7 November.

Management of the centre said the aim was to take a stance against abuse and violence across the country.

We felt the need to highlight the scourge of abuse and violence, even human trafficking, which have become great concerns in the country,” said Saneliswa Mqobongo, manager of youth development at the centre.

Mqobongo said during lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa himself declared domestic violence a national pandemic South Africa as a whole was facing – an issue that needed urgent intervention.

“We’ve seen quite a number of abuse cases between parents themselves, and parents abusing their children,” Mqobongo said.

She added that there was a need for organisations to speak out against the above-mentioned ills.

“Since we are looking after children from backgrounds where they have been abused, we’ve decided to put the message out there, to say we’re against abuse,” she said.

On the day, Mqobongo said the children expressed themselves with messages on placards in Afrikaans and English, and took to the streets to plead with the society at large to stop abuse and violence.

She said in the process, it will also teach children not to be abusive towards each other, especially not become bullies.

By doing this, we wanted to say we want all form of violence to stop, no matter how insignificant it may seem,” Mqobongo added.