BETHAL – Const Mogadime Mahlatse Thomas, Mr SA 2014 Top 50, hosted a campaign for the Young Harvest Christian School during Child Protection Week and had a discussion with the pupils about the abduction of the girls of Nigeria and informed the children to take very good care of themselves and one another to avoid such incidents.
In his speech he explained what abduction, child theft, is and what the impacts are in the society and Africa as a whole.
He mentioned two categories of abduction which differ by their perpetrating context, namely parental child abduction which can happen when a family relative has unauthorised custody of a child without parental agreement and contrary to family law ruling, which largely removes the child from care, access and contact of the other parent and family side.
The second category is abduction by strangers.
This is when you steal a child for criminal purposes which include extortion (to elicit a ransom from guardians for the child’s return), illegal adoption whereby a stranger steals a child with the intention of raising the child as their own or to sell the child to a prospective adoptive parent.
He advised the pupils to report any form of crime to the police and that they must never let a stranger take them home or offer them transport to or from home.
For more information, contact Const Thomas at 076 911 5316.
