brought to the hospital: the actual number is much greater.
Sexual molestation and the abuse of young children is reaching epidemic proportions in Valhalla Park, Bonteheuwel and Mitchells Plain. A spokesperson reports that 945 cases of sexual molestation and child abuse have been reported to their office.
Children as young as three years old watch social workers at the TygerBear Unit of the Tygerberg Hospital with wary eyes. Barely out of nappies, these victims of sexual assault have already learned that adults are not to be trusted.
The two domestic violence units on the Peninsula are working on more than 3,200 cases, of which the majority are complaints of serious sexual and other crimes against children.
Of every 100 cases of child abuse in the Western Cape, only 15 are reported to the police, and in 83 per cent of these cases the offender is known to the child.
Once an offender has been diagnosed as a ?confirmed pedophile,? there will always be a chance that he will express his pedophilic tendencies again, said Professor David Ackerman, clinical psychologist at the University of Cape Town.
One report after another, a never-ending stream of crimes against children. Murder, rape, maltreatment, harassment, assault, abuse. After an hour he had had enough, but he forced himself to continue.
A three-year-old girl was locked in a cage while her grandparents allegedly sexually assaulted her and failed to provide for even her most basic needs, Mpumalanga police said on Wednesday. Sergeant Anelda Fischer said police recently received a tip-off from a traveling pastor that a child was being incarcerated in a compound outside White River.
Fischer said that when police went to investigate they found the girl had already been removed from the cage. However, she said there was evidence the child had been battered with sticks or other weapons and had been sexually assaulted. It also seemed the child had no clothes of her own and had to beg naked for food. She slept on bits of plastic in the cage.
Colin Pretorius, the owner and head of a crcche in Parow, is being charged on the grounds that he sexually assaulted eleven boys between the ages of six and nine years over a period of four years. He was released on bail of R10,000.
At last he stood and walked unsteadily to the desk to pay for his use of the Internet.
Viljoen and she had three months together before he blew his brains out.
?At first I was just angry with him. Not heartbroken?that came later, because I truly loved him. And I was scared. He left me with the pregnancy and I didn?t know what to do or where to go. But I was dreadfully angry because he was such a coward. It happened a week after I told him I was pregnant, on a Monday night. I took him to the Spur and told him there was something I had to tell him and then I told him and he just sat there and said nothing. So then I said to him he didn?t have to marry me, just help me, because I didn?t know what to do.
?Then he said: ?Jissis, Christine, I?m no good as a father?I am a fuck-up, a drunken golfer with the yips.?
?I said he didn?t have to be a father, I didn?t want to be a mother yet, I just didn?t know what to do. I was a student. I had a crazy father. If he had to find out about the baby, he would go off the deep end. He would lock me up or something.
?Then he said let him think about it, make a plan, and the whole week he didn?t phone, and Friday night, just before I had to go to work, I decided I would phone him one last time and if he still tried to avoid me, well, then, fuck him, excuse me, but it was a very difficult time. And then they said there had been an accident, he was dead, but it wasn?t an accident. He had locked the pro shop and sat down at a little table and put a revolver against his head.
?It took me two years to stop being angry and remember that those three months with Viljoen were good. It was when I began to wonder what I would tell my child about her father. Sometime she would want to know and??
?You have a child?? asked the minister; for the first time he was taken aback.
?. . . and I would have to decide what to tell her. He didn?t even leave a note. Didn?t even write anything for her. He didn?t even say he was sorry, it was depression, or he didn?t have the guts or anything. So I decided I would tell her about those three months, because they were the best of my life.?
She was quiet then and sighed deeply. After a pause the minister asked, ?What is her name??
?Sonia.?
?Where is she?
?That is what my story is about,? she said.
15.
Griessel almost missed it. Two nurses came around early in the morning with the meal trolley, when he was already dressed and packed and ready to be discharged. His mind was elsewhere and he was not listening to their chatter as they approached his hospital room.
?. . . so then when she found out it was an old trick of his, he confessed. She says he had worked out that all the middle-aged girls go and buy comfort food at the Pick and Pay on Friday nights because they will be sitting in front of the TV all evening and that?s when he pushes his trolley down the aisles and picks the prettiest one to chat up. That?s how he got Emmarentia. Oh, hallo, Sarge, up already? Cheese omelet this morning, everyone?s favorite.?
?No thank you,? he said, taking his suitcase and heading for the door. But he stopped and asked, ?Friday nights??
?Sarge??
?Say that again about Emmarentia and Pick and Pay??
?Hey, Sarge, you don?t have to be so desperate, you?re not bad looking,? said one.
?There?s something of the Russian noble in you,? said the other. ?Such sexy Slavic features.?
