Cape Town – Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed the shocking statistics of the rising child murders in the country with more than 2 000 children killed in the last four years.
Cele said the children have been killed across the country with an assortment of weapons, and poisoning in some of the cases.
The police have been investigating these cases.
Cele made the revelation during a written Parliamentary reply to a question from DA MP Dirk Stubbe.
The question comes after Cele released quarterly crime statistics on Friday where the issue of child murders also came up.
Political parties have raised concern about rising crime levels in the country.
In his reply Cele said on average more than 500 children had been killed each year over the past four years.
In the 2017/18 financial year, 576 children were murdered. In 2018/19 a total of 563 child murders were reported.
Cele said in 2019/20 a total of 534 kids were murdered. He added that in the 2020/21 period 469 were murdered.
However, this was not the only crime that was witnessed against children.
Cele said children have also been subjected to rape over the last four years as well.
In 2017/18 there were 11 656 child rapes that were reported. This was followed by 11 665 child rapes in the following financial year.
But in the 2019/20 period there were 11 380 child rapes reported and the following financial year there were 10 552 child rapes.
Calls have been made for Cele to tighten measures as these crimes are on the increase.
Political Bureau