Hon Chairperson, hon Deputy Minister, hon members, the theme for our debate today is "Working together to protect our children". South African children are under siege on all fronts. According to the South African Child Gauge 2010-11 report released by the University of Cape Town's Children's Institute, 6,8 million children in our country live in households without access to clean drinking water. The report also showed that almost three million of our country's 18,6 million children, who make up about 15,7% of our population, went to bed hungry.
According to a recent written reply by the Minister of Social Development, 8% of children under age 5 in South Africa were severely malnourished. Of those, 13% were found in KwaZulu-Natal and another 10% in the Northern Cape. A quarter of such children lived in these two provinces.
The sexual abuse and murder of children is a big problem. South Africa has among the highest incidence of child and baby rape in the world, with more than 67 000 cases of rape and sexual assaults against children reported in the year 2000. The horrific thing is that child abusers are often relatives, even fathers and providers. These are the people who are supposed to protect children.
The horrendous story of a four-year-old boy beheaded by a neighbour for muti purposes is one of the gruesome acts our children are confronted with. They are deprived of playing outside. They are deprived of being children. Poverty has turned mothers against children. Recently, a mother drowned her five children, three boys and two girls aged 13, 10, 5, 4 and 2, in 20- litre buckets of water.
Hon Deputy Minister, Cope calls on the security forces to act firmly and viciously against all those who terrorise and abuse our women and children. We are also saying our courts must show no mercy when these monsters are found guilty. Millions of our people are still waiting for the Promised Land.