WC Social Development Dept: Over 48 000 children abused between April & December 2021

The Western Cape Social Development Department said that over a period of about eight months, over 48,000 children were reported to be victims of violence or abuse.

The provincial department has revealed the latest statistics taken between 1 April to 31 December last year.

The department said that children had been exposed to physical, emotional, s.e.xual, and other forms of abuse in recent months.

Deliberate neglect was the highest at 1,762 cases followed by sexual abuse at 1,707.

Over 800 children were physically abused and over 400 were emotionally abused.

Twenty-six children were abandoned.

Social Development MEC Sharna Fernandez called on society to help fight to protect the province’s children who continued to fall prey to various forms of violence and abuse.

-EWN

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