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Children seen holders posters during the Child Protection Fun Walk and Fun Day in Soweto hosted by GP Dept of Community Safety, 29 May 2026.
As the country marks Child Protection Month, South Africans are urged to act where children may be at risk.
Dr Shaheda Omar of the Teddy Bear Clinic says that although Child Protection Month raises awareness, the issue requires attention throughout the year.
“We are looking at Child Protection Month, but we also need to confront neglect and the invisible child,” says Omar.
Omar weighed in on a child-related incident reported during the month of May, the case of the 12-year-old who allegedly committed suicide in Durban last week and says, “it’s sad that we are finding children taking care of children.”
She says children have taken on responsibilities that should be carried by adults, calling this a “form of abuse”.
“Children are expected to play, laugh, skip, jump and allowed to grow and develop in a protected environment and should not be subjected to a level of responsibility which is unrealistic, inappropriate and unfair,” Omar stresses.
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Omar has reiterated that child protection is everyone’s responsibility.
She also weighs in on the disappearance of two-year-old Omphile Sithole from Limpopo. The toddler’s grandparents later appeared in court on child neglect charges and when asked if neglect should be considered a form of violence against children and Omar says, “It’s a form of abuse. It constitutes abuse.”
The Children’s Act 38 of 2005 states that every child has the right to be protected from abuse, neglect, maltreatment, and degradation.
She further describes neglect as the most widespread yet least recognised form of child maltreatment, calling it the “silent erosion of child safety.”
She emphasises the importance of community involvement in protecting and reporting cases of child abuse, saying communities must make child protection everyone’s responsibility and not leave it only to designated individuals such as social workers and teachers. She adds, “Your child is my child if we want to break the scourge of violence.”
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Omar has linked gender-based violence and child neglect, saying that neglect constitutes abuse. However, she has revealed the various forms of neglect saying there’s purposeful and situational neglect.
She says situational neglect is when caretakers are unable to provide necessary support towards a child despite their efforts while maintaining that poverty and instability has an impact on children and families.
“Situational neglect is beyond the control of a caretaker such as unemployment, many children are victims to situational neglect if we look at the economy of the country and high unemployment rate,” says Omar.
Moreover, she defines purposeful neglect as a condition where a caretaker fails to provide for a child even when resources are available.
“If a child has been ill and they’ve failed to follow through or if the child is unsupervised, not feeding the child, that would be purposeful neglect.”
Omar says these challenges can be addressed through stronger prevention strategies, reacting, recognising, responding and reporting.
In observance of National Child Protection Week, the @GP_CommSafety , in partnership with the City of Johannesburg Social Development and the City of Johannesburg Early Childhood Development (ECD) Forum, hosted a Child Protection Fun Walk and Fun Day in Meadowlands, Soweto.
The… pic.twitter.com/rEldTF1Jnm
— GP Department of Community Safety (@GP_CommSafety) May 29, 2026
