Police concerned about rise in defilement, incest cases
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Monday March 13, 2017 16:40
Masunga police station covers 23 villages in the Tati West constituency.
“Majority of parents tend to turn a blind eye to cases of defilement and incest because they still believe that such circumstances should be dealt with internally as family matters, as it usually involves people closer to them,” she said.
Ngayaya added that they are aware that people who often abuse children sexually are individuals closer to them especially their relatives, family friends and neighbours.
Even when cases get reported to the authorities, Ngayaya said in most cases justice is denied because the parents fail to defend their children in court.
Ngayaya said they have also noted that some parents of defiled or children in incestuous relationships do not report the cases to the police in order to strengthen their bargaining power with relatives of the suspected defilers and incesters.
She said that most of the victims are girls of the ages between 14 to15 years. The police boss added that most of defilement cases reported through social workers involve students from different secondary schools within their policing areas.
She said that majority of the secondary schools in their jurisdiction are boarding schools and normally the guidance and counselling teachers report such cases to social workers after noticing behavioural change and under performance of the victims at school.
Also, in most cases, Ngayaya said, parents report cases of defilement and incest when the victim is pregnant. The police boss also said that some of the pregnancies only become evident when victims were consulted at health facilities.
Ngayaya has appealed to parents should protect their children from any harm either sexually, psychological or socially so that the perpetrators can be punished for their criminality.
“We still believe that guardians protect a lot of lawbreakers who sexually abuse children. To end such behaviour parents should report defilement and incest cases regardless of their relations with wrongdoers so that they could be punished accordingly,” she said.
She disclosed that they have registered over 13 cases of defilement since October 2016 until now.
She added that according to their statistics over 80 percent of the defilement cases were reported through the social workers’ offices.
Ngayaya said that the statistics show that parents have abandoned their duties of taking good care of their children’s wellbeing.
She added that parents should understand that the future of their children lies in their hands.
Ngayaya also cautioned the villagers about crimes such as house breaking, burglary and theft. She said that they recorded 59 cases of house breaking since last year.
She also said since 2016 they registered an overall of 28 cases of burglary, theft and 11 cases of rape.