Pressure to perform at school, exposure to domestic abuse and access to violence on television are turning some South African children into killers, child experts say.
Bridgit Soellaart, an educational psychologist, said children are more exposed to trauma than they had been in the past. Also, there had been an increase in domestic violence and a drop in parental supervision in the home.
Soellaart said there was an increase in aggression among children, and in some instances there have been incidents in which children, especially those raised by single mothers, had abused their parent.
More disturbingly, many children had killed or abused those younger than themselves.
Several high-profile examples of children killing other children have grabbed headlines over the past few months:
- Last month, two young girls were arrested after allegedly fabricating a story about the murder of two-year-old Langelihle Mthembu from the Sundumbili area in Zululand. It is believed the two girls made up the story and may be connected to the victim's death.
- In Cape Town, six farm children aged between eight and 13 have been charged with attempted murder for allegedly tying up their eight-year-old friend and brutally assaulting him when he threatened to expose their animal-killing spree on a neighbouring farm.
- In another incident on a farm in Cape Town last December, four boys aged between seven and 11 allegedly killed eight-year-old Isak Muggels. It was alleged that Isak was beaten up and then thrown, unconscious, into a dam, where he drowned.
- More recently, a 13-year-old boy from a primary school in Johannesburg allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl in front of his classmates.
- Last week, a 12-year-old boy was charged with attempted murder after he allegedly stabbed a seven-year-old schoolgirl in Utrecht, KwaZulu-Natal.
Niresh Ramklaas, the head of the Western Cape Child Welfare Society, said there had been an increase in older children abusing or assaulting people younger than themselves. He said 102 children died in Cape Town last year in incidents involving their peers.
"We've seen a sharp escalation of children being drawn into violence by older youths," he said. "We live in a violent society and most children look up to adults as role models, yet some of them are people involved in violence and crime."
Lynette Schroeder, a social worker, said there were many different reasons for the increased exposure to violence.
"The stress levels of our children are high because of poverty, insufficient nutrition and inadequate shelter, among other factors."
Schroeder said society was to blame for not setting a correct example for children. "We are doing something wrong if children are not behaving like children," she said.
Solly Mabusela, the spokesperson for the South African Democratic Teachers' Union, said while the reasons for the conduct of some children were not clear, there were external pressures.
"Teachers need to be taught how to deal with aggressive pupils, especially since some of them are recipients of violence," he said.
But Paul Colditz, the chairperson of the Federation of School Governing Bodies of South Africa, said abusive pupils were sometimes sheltered by the education system.
"We do not have the support of the education authorities in taking action against pupils found guilty of wrongdoing," he said, adding that when a parent body recommended expulsion, the decision was often overturned by the provincial education bosses.
Dave Balt, the president of the National Association of Professional Teachers of South Africa, said the educators' body was also aware of an increase in the number of violent acts involving children.
The National Institute for Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation of Offenders (Nicro) said that although its latest reports showed a slight decrease in youths involved in less serious crimes, there had been an increase in those involved in serious and violent crimes.
According to the department of correctional services, 30 000 out of the 182 493 sentenced and unsentenced prisoners in the country's jails last year were juveniles.
Some 16 percent of all prisoners are between the ages of 14 and 20, and Gauteng has the highest prisoner total in the country, with 6 589 of those jailed by October last year being child offenders.
Amanda Dissel, the manager of the criminal justice programme at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said more than a thousand children under the age of 18 were serving time in South Africa's prisons.
In a paper, Dissel said the centre visited five prisons that accommodate convicted and sentenced children in Gauteng: Pretoria Central, Boksburg, Leeuwkop, Krugersdorp and Johannesburg.
Sixty-one juveniles were interviewed at the five prisons. Eleven of these juveniles were older than 17 years, but their responses were included in the results of a study by the centre as most of them were sentenced while they were still children.
Of the 61 inmates interviewed, nine boys had been convicted of rape. In three of the cases, the victims had been much younger than the offenders, at four, six and nine years old.
In these cases, the boys said they had not realised that the victims were so young, or they did not realise what harm they were doing through their actions.
Sentences handed down for rape varied between three and nine years. None of these boys had previously been convicted of any offence. The boy who had raped a six-year-old received the highest sentence (nine years, four of which were suspended).
"Samuel", convicted of car theft, told Dissel that his friends also stole cars and many of them had been sent to prison. He himself was recruited into stealing cars by his friends who, at 20 years of age, were older than him.
He said he had stolen cars several times before he was caught, and with the profit he had purchased trendy clothes. He had not given any of this money to his parents for living expenses. He said that the cars were stolen on order for a scrap dealer.
"Mandla", aged 14, said he had been fighting with a boy. They both took out their knives and Mandla stabbed his opponent until he died.
Sexual offenders, said Dissel, were the most difficult group of offenders to categorise, and only a few gave information relating to their crimes.
"Pakiso", convicted of raping a child of nine, said that at the time he had been unable to control his adolescent sexual urges.
"Mduduzi", who raped a six-year-old girl, said he had not realised the unlawfulness of his act.
Dissel said it was apparent that most of the crimes, particularly those in the economic category, were planned.
She said most of the children interviewed came from deprived families, where one or no member of the household was employed.
"Lucas" told Dissel how he became involved in crime after he moved to Thembisa to look for his mother. He said that he met up with a 21-year-old man who asked him whether he wanted a job. "Because I had no money I agreed," he said.
The man pointed out a car which he was to steal. He was informed that there was already a buyer for it and that they would be paid R10 000. Lucas was given a pistol and ammunition.
He waited for the owner of the car to arrive, and pointing the gun at her head, told her to give him the keys. She did so, but he and his friend were stopped and apprehended at the exit of the parking lot.
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