South Africa P.I.G.: CHILDREN

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Shocking warnings of child delinquency in South Africa

Child violence experts point to bad parenting, drug and alcohol abuse, ‘rampant materialism’. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GcKL8dabhqUFU3WageKjUAg1QhiGm6Hpo07QgztaBoKeCiy-a_bTt4IPzFtLl4_nE-whl7H0iYzIk9W_5zMv-E1tousdwcD-4kf51tQgSKnHD_ikNdYiWE741ViD2JT4eORcZ7kQdlOF/s1600-h/children-sa-guns.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321148510974786114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_GcKL8dabhqUFU3WageKjUAg1QhiGm6Hpo07QgztaBoKeCiy-a_bTt4IPzFtLl4_nE-whl7H0iYzIk9W_5zMv-E1tousdwcD-4kf51tQgSKnHD_ikNdYiWE741ViD2JT4eORcZ7kQdlOF/s400/children-sa-guns.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 238px" /></a>More than a quarter of South Africa’s children think it’s okay to steal from the rich and more than 220000 have been sexually assaulted at schools — where over 10% say its okay to force yourself on somebody. This week, child violence experts said a “crisis of values” created by bad parenting, poverty, poor role models and materialism had placed about a quarter of the nation’s children at risk of leading anti-social lives. Their warnings of a “ticking time bomb” follow a series of new child surveys, which researchers described as “shocking”. In one survey of seven “at risk” schools around Johannesburg, conducted by Unisa criminologist Professor Marelize Schoeman, more than 25% of pupils said it was either sometimes or always “okay for a man to hit his girlfriend or wife if she doesn’t listen to him”. Another 28% said it was sometimes or always acceptable to use violence to “get what you want”, while 30% said it was okay “for the poor to steal from the rich”. Two national surveys by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention — to be published in June this year — posed similar questions to thousands of children at random. Head researcher Patrick Burton confirmed that: <ul><li>More than a quarter of young people said it was acceptable to steal from wealthy people; </li><li>More than 10% said it was acceptable for a man to force himself on a woman in certain circumstances, such as if she wore a short skirt or if the man had paid for the date; </li><li>Over 450000 had been robbed of their possessions under threat of violence in a single year; and </li><li>Extrapolating from an earlier survey, Burton said about 106000 primary school children and 116000 high school children in South Africa had been victims of rape, sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact at school. </li></ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNB2h4qZkN_aYqBSmqlQRN3gWw4zc6ICcLfvLQY1M1BSPR-Ly17XUpGfmr2lH57_97BK2qQ1oml-MIa5UKc0dIjHGdhfVxN6sUWmnLmPbM9lsmaM0O1jQsmHTWGoPOY7YIMat68-GEOt1P/s1600-h/edu-schools-pupils.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5321148508062808450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNB2h4qZkN_aYqBSmqlQRN3gWw4zc6ICcLfvLQY1M1BSPR-Ly17XUpGfmr2lH57_97BK2qQ1oml-MIa5UKc0dIjHGdhfVxN6sUWmnLmPbM9lsmaM0O1jQsmHTWGoPOY7YIMat68-GEOt1P/s400/edu-schools-pupils.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 308px" /></a>Dr Cathy Ward, a child psychologist at the University of Cape Town, said that, in addition to the apartheid legacy of poverty and violence, “rampant materialism”, a lack of moral leadership and widespread alcohol and drug abuse were eroding values. “What’s driving kids to think it’s okay to steal from those who are better off is that many don’t have a cell-phone with a camera or designer shoes. They have this sense that they really need things to be a person in a very fundamental way,” said Ward. “On top of that, there’s the constant absence of a primary caregiver. Children I’ve interviewed tell me: ‘After school we either lock ourselves in our houses, while our mums work, or we go on the street, where we face the choice of either joining a gang or becoming a victim of one.’ ” Dr Charlene Swartz, youth researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council, said almost all children agreed that it was wrong to hurt people. “Some kids tell me its okay to steal from the wealthy because they’ve got insurance. “Suburban kids tell me they just don’t have the time to do wrong things — their schedules are full of activities and there’s so much surveillance around them. Clearly, we have to keep all our children occupied,” she said. South African Police Service figures from 2008 reveal that between 11000 and 14000 children under the age of 18 are arrested every month.

Shocking warnings of child delinquency in South Africa

Child violence experts point to bad parenting, drug and alcohol abuse, ‘rampant materialism’. More than a quarter of South Africa’s children...

12:25 AM

Armed thugs attack orphans home, gang rape 16yr old

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EgEZrwCxtNTjrhs4l8ApyLfipnHxbkhFdbO6Jp2z6ued7AXEicGZINO5pCm_hPw3V-mplQrA52EPjhv5JhX-yPm-bcDSOBZmb3iGYXEeQstd2kncl7QrfwFCQVfrw8X1rSkTY5CzFNc/s1600-h/SOS-childrens-village.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300140310917778194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6EgEZrwCxtNTjrhs4l8ApyLfipnHxbkhFdbO6Jp2z6ued7AXEicGZINO5pCm_hPw3V-mplQrA52EPjhv5JhX-yPm-bcDSOBZmb3iGYXEeQstd2kncl7QrfwFCQVfrw8X1rSkTY5CzFNc/s400/SOS-childrens-village.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 290px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 211px" /></a>FOUR thugs broke into an orphans’ village outside Mthatha after midnight yesterday. Armed with a spear, a gun and a knife, they assaulted the 57-year-old guardian for an hour before gang-raping a teenage girl. Police are investigating the horrific attack, which happened at the Mthatha SOS Children’s Village home . The woman and the girl were fast asleep, together with other children who are between the ages of 12 and seven years old, in the house. “It was around midnight when I heard something banging the main door twice,” said the woman, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the rape victim. “I woke up to investigate only to find that strangers were already inside. I shouted for help but they grabbed me and took me to my bedroom while one had a gun pointed at me.” The guardian said in the bedroom the four, who she estimated were all in their 20s, kept on demanding money. The criminals noticed a safe in the guardian’s bedroom and demanded that she open it. They took a camera, which was inside the safe. As she repeatedly told them she had no money in the house, they assaulted her. “I told them that I used the only money we had to buy groceries, but they hit me and stabbed me with a spear on the head. “I gave them some money that I had in the bedroom. “They demanded more money and pushed the gun against my nose and threatened to shoot me,” said the guardian. She said the more she denied having money, the more the criminals assaulted her, even jumping on top of her repeatedly. She then gave in and handed them all she had, about R700. They also took her cellphone. The thugs pushed girls’ underwear into her mouth to stop her from screaming and tied her hands with an electric cord. They also ransacked the house for valuables. “Then three of them went to the girls’ bedroom, while the other stayed behind to make sure I did not call for help,” she said. The rape victim, who is in Grade 10 at the SOS school, said she was roughly awakened by the men who demanded a cellphone and money. She gave them R40 and said she did not have a phone. “They demanded that I must undress. They grabbed hold of me and tried to undress me, but I pushed them away. They hit me with an open hand across the face repeatedly. They also hit me with the spear twice on the face,” said the rape victim, who moved into the SOS Children’s Village in 2007, after the death of her parents. Then one of the men held her hands tight while another one closed her mouth with both his hands. The third man cut her underwear off with his knife. Then they took turns raping her. After they had finished, one of them ordered another 12-year-old girl to undress. She was saved when another of the intruders said she was too young. When they left the house, the criminals took all the monthly groceries . Captain Zamukulungisa Jozana said police were investigating all leads. SOS Children’s Village shelters more than 100 young children from babies to 18 year olds.

Armed thugs attack orphans home, gang rape 16yr old

FOUR thugs broke into an orphans’ village outside Mthatha after midnight yesterday. Armed with a spear, a gun and a knife, they assaulted th...

1:56 AM

Cosas defends Zuma march, calls for voting age to be lowered to 7

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWdyPlGhbvstKT5-8OP9zXs_nOn2xPN0F_zqYAJK25kzJIjsXsF6vo0Op1dmPGY6pDkqyDApbwM9afoYC3C57SaT_3gV5vadUi38MzVuYd3eFunyMfrrC9Ffu93ifEJnXNMMtLYFo2uA/s1600-h/SABLACKCHILDRENPROTEST.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238864613763207922" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhWdyPlGhbvstKT5-8OP9zXs_nOn2xPN0F_zqYAJK25kzJIjsXsF6vo0Op1dmPGY6pDkqyDApbwM9afoYC3C57SaT_3gV5vadUi38MzVuYd3eFunyMfrrC9Ffu93ifEJnXNMMtLYFo2uA/s400/SABLACKCHILDRENPROTEST.bmp" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>JOHANNESBURG. The Congress of South African Students has defended last week's action in which it forced schoolchildren to leave their classes and march in support of Jacob Zuma, saying that education was no longer a necessity in South Africa. "Many of us don't have a secondary education," said a Cosas spokesman, "and it hasn't hurt our chances of getting high-paying jobs in Government." Hundreds of schoolchildren were rounded up by Cosas in township schools around Johannesburg and taken by bus and train to the city centre where they protested Zuma's innocence by sucking lollipops, braiding each others' hair, and writing inspirational messages about Beyonce Knowles in TipEx on their blazers. Spokesman Facebrick Ndlovu dismissed criticisms that the march should have taken place on a Saturday instead of a school day, and also that Cosas was squandering taxpayers' money. "I have personally been told by many of our child cadres that they felt the march was a success largely because it happened on a school day," he said. "In fact they have demanded that Cosas stage a similar march every Friday, and perhaps some Thursdays as well, in order to fully enflame their patriotic zeal." He added that the pupils had also asked for "donuts, maybe a DJ, and a jumping castle, also to increase their awareness of the injustice facing Comrade Zuma". "As for the issue of the funds we used, we will not apologize. The people who pay tax are mostly those who have passed Matric, and clearly this is not our demographic. "Nobody even vaguely connected with Cosas has passed Matric, or come close on a second or third attempt, and we are determined to uphold those traditions in the coming years." He conceded that most of the children had not known why they had left their schools or what the march was about, but he denied that disrupting their exam preparation was helping to produce a generation of uncritical voting fodder. "Even if I knew what a fodder was, I would deny this," said Ndlovu. "We are simply helping nurture and develop new skills that are in desperately short supply in this country." He said that these skills included "voting for Msholozi and writing protest manifestos in TipEx on the doors of public toilets". Meanwhile Cosas has called on the government to lower the voting age to 7. National Chairperson Einstein Sodwana said that children needed to "have the burden of education lifted from them so that they can be free to fully engage in the revolution". "If our Grade One's can vote, why expend resources on controversial and damaging activities like teaching them how to read or do sums? "In our view we need a much more nurturing education system for our little ones, whereby all they do at school is Show And Tell. "We show them a picture of Msholozi, and tell them to vote for him." source: <a href="http://www.hayibo.com/">http://www.hayibo.com/</a>

Cosas defends Zuma march, calls for voting age to be lowered to 7

JOHANNESBURG. The Congress of South African Students has defended last week's action in which it forced schoolchildren to leave their cl...

2:58 AM

Matrics warned to expect "extremely tough" exam papers

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqFQ-qrsdfG5eEyMz4oV5XF0hLew5dhY4eIIw55TLK8CmFSoAzxSxybhNf6aNgEax36dLooMYOfhrNjJmmyqkWlSYAGI-aGtM4qL26gsRI3_od728frvGR-oScHPJQdHQT0IIgkpubEs/s1600-h/pandor.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231126502520094594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbqFQ-qrsdfG5eEyMz4oV5XF0hLew5dhY4eIIw55TLK8CmFSoAzxSxybhNf6aNgEax36dLooMYOfhrNjJmmyqkWlSYAGI-aGtM4qL26gsRI3_od728frvGR-oScHPJQdHQT0IIgkpubEs/s400/pandor.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> JOHANNESBURG. South Africa's education department has warned matrics to expect an exceptionally tough final examination this year, saying that they would have to spell their names correctly on their scripts in order to pass. According to a spokesman, the new standardised papers would "separate the wheat from the sheep and the chaff from the goats". Education Ministry spokesman Aristotle Nkosi said that the more demanding exam papers had come as a shock to many in the education system, especially teachers who had not yet covered correct spelling of names in the syllabus. He confirmed that the country's largest labour unions were threatening legal action against the Ministry of Education and had described the new exam papers as "rasist and diskriminatory towards teechers" on the grounds that many of their members had not yet learned to spell their own names correctly and were being placed in traumatic situations for which they had not been trained, such as having to teach children in a classroom. However he said the new exams were part of the Ministry's effort to produce young people able to compete in a globalised world. "We want to send a clear message out to the giants of the developing world," said Nkosi. "We want them to recognise the a South African education is not something to be trifled with, and that we are producing cheap labour more quickly and with a smaller investment than they are. "We want them to know that wherever there's a Chinese person shovelling coal onto a Liberian cargo ship, there'll be a South African shovelling coal twice as fast. "We want them to know that wherever there's an Indian squatting over a fire, burning computer components to extract mercury and lead, there'll be a South African squatting over a bigger, better fire, extracting more mercury and lead, more cheaply." Nkosi confirmed that subjects would no longer be examined on the Standard- and Lower Grade, but he was quick to reassure pupils who had been studying subjects on these grades that their talents would not be wasted. "You form a vital part of our country's future, whether as ballot checkers in the next general election, or as data capturers at Home Affairs, or as public relations officers at the 2010 World Cup," he said. Meanwhile the Ministry has confirmed that senior officials were unable to attend the briefing as they were attending their children's cello recitals and polo matches at various private schools in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Source: <a href="http://www.hayibo.com/">http://www.hayibo.com/</a>

Matrics warned to expect "extremely tough" exam papers

JOHANNESBURG. South Africa's education department has warned matrics to expect an exceptionally tough final examination this year, sayin...

12:24 PM

South Africa P.I.G.

Shocking warnings of child delinquency in South Africa

Armed thugs attack orphans home, gang rape 16yr old

Cosas defends Zuma march, calls for voting age to be lowered to 7

Matrics warned to expect "extremely tough" exam papers

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