Jun 06, 2025 MISA, Motor Industry Staff Association, Martle Keyter, Child Protection Week
MISA comment - South Africa is unable to protect its children
This year’s Child Protection Week was brutal and a reminder that South African’s are not adhering to our Constitutional obligation to ensure that the rights of children are paramount to any other rights. MISA, the Motor Industry Staff Association, collaborated with three TikTok sensations, Mandisi Tshigatshana, Sipho Mkhwanazi and Darren Campher, as part of the Union’s social responsibility to raise awareness about child abuse, child trafficking and school bullying. Together we were able to reach more than 3 million people.
“The Union’s efforts and victory was short lived after the mutilated body of 14-year old Likhina Fose, was found in Durban Deep, Roodepoort Johannesburg. In Vanderbiljpark, a sangoma and the mother of two-year-old Kutlwano Shalaba were arrested after Kutlwano’s body was found in a shallow grave. He disappeared in November last year.
“The police still have not arrested a suspect for the murder of 11-year old Jayden Meek – his body was found bruised and stripped naked just hours after he was reported missing from the complex in which his mother lived. The grade 6 learner vanished after he was dropped off from school on 18 May,” says Martlé Keyter, MISA’s Chief Executive Officer: Operations.
As part of the Union’s awareness campaign, MISA spoke to Irvin Ndlovu, the father of 4-year-old Bokgabo Poo who was abducted, raped, murdered and her little body found mutilated on 10 October 2022. According to Ndlovu the Joslin Smith trial was very painful for him to watch. Joslin was sold to a sangoma on 19 February 2024 by her mother, Kelly, from the Middlepos shack she lived in, in the Saldanha Bay. “It feels like everyone just goes on with their lives, while children continue to fall victim. The justice system is failing us. I want to know what happened and who killed my child. I am not the person I used to be. I am an angry person who snaps a lot, my heart is filled with anger.”
Ntokozo Zikhali was acquitted of Bakgabo’s murder despite being seen on CCTV-footage leaving a park in the East Rand with the little girl, while out on bail for raping a nine-year-old girl. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment on this case.
According to Ndlovu South Africa underestimates muti-related murders. “This is real in Southern Africa.”
He works as a Marketing Manager, Activist and Radio Presenter at Benoni FM and is very involved in community work. “On the day my little girl went missing, the South African Police Service (SAPS), did not have a vehicle to help us with the search, but the community left no stone unturned while we were searching for Bakgabo. I will always be grateful to everyone who helped and I believe I have a duty to also give back where I can.”
His advice to parents is to do whatever it takes to protect their children, don’t let them out of your sight and don’t trust anyone near them. Ndlovu vowed to always keep the memory of Bakgabo alive and to ensure that her story is told. He pleads with officers in the SAPS to resign if they are not passionate about their jobs. “Don’t be a police officer if you don’t have a heart and empathy for the families of victims. Yes it might be just another case, but for the family of the loved one it was their everything,” he says.
Issued by Sonja Carstens, Manager of MISA's Media & Communication Department, on behalf of the Union.
For more information contact Carstens on 082 463 6806 or email mailto:Sonja.Carstens@ms.org.za.
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