Eastern Cape Social Development MEC, Nancy Sihlwayi, said the recent past felt like a “week of the long knives” for mostly women and children in the Province.
In a statement Monday, MEC Sihlwayi lamented the murders of two children and the disappearance of a teenage girl in the Butterworth area.
She said “this bloodbath took a gruesome turn since the mutilated body of a four-year-old boy, Kamvelihle Ngala was discovered at Port St Johns earlier last month”.
MEC Sihlwayi was referring to the discovery of the body of three-year-old Jade Veldman whose mutilated body was found dumped metres from her Second Creek home, in East London.
The child had been sliced with a panga.
“As if that was not enough, a 45-year old Lusikisiki woman also became a victim of ruthlessness. Also the Butterworth community is in suspense while police are still looking for a missing teenage girl last seen a weekend ago,” said Sihlwayi.
The MEC said all of these atrocious acts happen while the province is preparing to highlight the plight of children when it launches the Child Protection Week on the 30 May 2017, at Mlungisi Township in Stutterheim.
MEC Sihwlayi said that the theme for this year’s commemoration could not have apt: “Let Us All Protect Children to Move South Africa Forward”.
