Please report child abuse?
No-one can take you to court for reporting child abuse or neglect.
Sanet van Moerkerken, programme manager of Springs and KwaThema Child Welfare Society, says the Children’s Act requires of anyone to report any knowledge of a child being abused or neglected.
“As long as it is done in good faith and not vindictive,” says van Moerkerken.
It is, according to van Moerkerken, easy to spot neglected children.
These children will either not go to school or beg for food from neighbours.
The neglected children will also never be properly clothed or have no school clothes.
You will also see them under all weather circumstances outside their houses or in the streets.
To help these child victims is as easy as reporting the matter to one of the three organisations that do social work in Springs and KwaThema.
These organisations are Springs and KwaThema Child Welfare Society in Twelfth Street, the Christelike Maatskaplike Raad in Daggafontein and the Department of Social Development in Fourth Street, Springs Central Business District, which each serves in its own areas.
Reporting abuse may be done either anonymously or by revealing your name by going to these organisations’ offices or by calling them.
Van Moerkerken says children sometimes report their own parents at their offices.
Some reports on child abuse or neglect also regularly come from the schools.
She says after the organisation receives information on possible abuse, one of its social workers or auxillary social workers will investigate as soon as possible.
In cases of child neglect the social workers will rather see that families stay together by assisting them with food parcels to care for their families.
It depends on the degree of abuse before the child has to be removed for child neglect from home to a place of safety.
They will also look to place the child with a family member or someone the child is familiar with.
A court process, on the recommendation of the social worker’s reports, will then determine who will take care of the child.
Van Moerkerken says in the case of child sexual abuse, these children are almost always removed from the place of abuse.
The Child Act makes provision that the offender is removed from the place where the child lives, but this is not always possible, because the child victim may be further victimised and intimidated.
