By ‘Maleruo Leponesa
In this Child Protection Week, I would like to share a story.
I recently met a 13-year-old boy during a weekday morning on the streets of Ghost Town. I asked him why he wasn’t in school.
He told me he lives with his 82-year-old grandmother and mother, who drinks alcohol every day.
The boy said he got into a fight at a local Primary school in April 2024. The principal asked parents to come to school to resolve the matter. But his mom has not done so to this day.
“I want to go to school, even if it is a different school. My mother did not go to school because she is always drunk, and I do not want to go with her when she is drunk because she ends up saying bad things,” the boy said with tears in his eyes.
His aunt said she didn’t want to interfere. “I know the mother – she will later say I fed you wrong information.”
When I approached his mother, she was clearly under the influence of alcohol. She admitted that she had not gone to school to address the problem. She claimed to have instead gone to the Department of Education. But she admitted she had taken no further steps this year to ensure her child was placed in a school.
In the 18th century, Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that children are born pure and good; it is society and improper education that corrupt them. He believed in what he called Natural Education, where children are guided with patience, love and affection, not harsh punishment.
The sad reality is that, even today, we still have children (especially boys) who roam the streets during school days, even when education is free.
Nosiphi Matshaya, social work supervisor for Child Welfare Grahamstown, said their centre takes children from birth to 10 years. However, if a child exceeds that age whilst at the centre, they can be kept up to the age of 21.
“We still get children who are not referred to us by partner organisations, but who just walk in. Sometimes we go around looking for children who qualify to be here. Unfortunately, some of the children are comfortable in the streets, as no one controls them. Some of those children know our car; they just run away when they see us,” Matshaya said.
There are currently 14 children of different ages under the centre’s care, who live in three households with foster parents.
Nevertheless, there are still children who live in their homes with family members but who do not attend school. Dysfunctional families create a hostile environment for children.
As we dedicate this week to child protection, I have not forgotten the Minister of Basic Education’s Siviwe Gwarube’s invocation to reimagine the boy child as a catalyst for change. She was speaking at Kingswood College on 31 March at the commemoration of Uyinene Mrwetyana’s murder. Gwarube urged us to empower boy children.
She said that if we don’t, the law courts would eventually mete out punishment on damaged men when they descend into crime.
It all begins at the foundation level when a child is still young. It still takes a village to raise a child, and we must contribute to protecting and guiding all our children with love and patience.
The boy in Ghost Town haunts me. I am planning a visit to his former principal. I will let you know how it goes.
