Apartheid and Child Abuse

Abstract

In a report by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights it is stated that + 2,000 children under the age of 16 were detained in South Africa in a period of + 4 months. It states that torture and assault of children in detention was routine (Cited in the Star 21/4/86). My own work with children in South Africa's black urban townships confirms that great numbers of children in South Africa are being subjected to violence which finds its origin in the apartheid system. In this sense apartheid could be seen to have institutionalised child abuse.
Not all the abuse and violence to which children are subjected is directly inflicted by the South African Defence Force or the police. Assaults in detention and violent action by troops in the townships represent only two types of abuse growing out of the apartheid system. Apartheid fosters hosility and conflict in the townships and the number of children exposed to violence is increasing daily. There are long lists of names of detainees which range in the thousands, people who have died in what is euphemistically termed the unrest, and the names of the more than 300 people who have been neck laced (Weekly Mail, September 26th 1986; City Press August 24th, 1986).
Given these overwhelming numbers it is hard at times to retain one's humanity and recognise that each of these names has a face, a family, and a history. It is for this reason that I have chosen the case study method as I wish to stress that there are faces in the revolution. The following is the story of one of the many thousands whose individual narratives will combine to document events which will remain a blot on South African history throughout time. The adolescent whose story will be presented will be called Sipho, an adolescent from the township of Leandra.