Two Bloubergstrand parents accused of the sexual abuse of their children are expected in the dock of the Cape Town Magistrates Court on Thursday.
They are facing charges including rape, sexual grooming and child pornography. The alleged victims, their children, are three years old and eight years old.
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The alleged incident has been widely condemned, with activist group Action Society calling for the prioritisation of child protection cases.
The group’s Kaylynn Palm said this incident reflects the systemic failures in the justice and social welfare systems in South Africa. Especially in identifying and preventing abuse, before it reaches “this level of depravity”.
“The fact that children as young as three and eight were subjected to such unspeakable crimes by the very people who should have protected them is deeply disturbing,” said Palm.
The investigation and subsequent arrest on Tuesday involved the national and Western Cape Serial and Electronic Crime Investigations (SECI) Units, and officials from the Department of Social Development (DSD), on a local level. On an international level, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations were also involved.
Palm said this coordinated response highlights the need for global collaboration in dealing with the sexual exploitation of children on the internet, but also the greater need for better mechanisms to deal with this in South Africa.
“It must also serve as a call to arms for government departments, especially SAPS and DSD, to strengthen their surveillance and response systems. These children should never have reached the point where rescue came only after their abuse was broadcast and investigated overseas.”
Activist Lucinda Evans, in a previous article, corroborated this, adding that South Africa appears to have become a target for a child pornography underworld.
Meanwhile, the Action Society has reiterated its call for the National Sex Offenders register to be made public, as well as for a “decentralised policing model that puts power back into the hands of well-trained, community-based law enforcement”.
“Action Society reiterates our demand for the urgent prioritisation of child protection cases. These horrific crimes cannot continue in silence or behind bureaucracy. We owe our children more than reactive rescue missions—we owe them prevention, protection, and justice,” said Palm.
