The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply alarmed after Community Safety MEC, Xolile Nqatha, revealed that 175 children were murdered, and that 160 child abuse cases, and 2,103 child rape cases were opened in the 2025/26 financial year.
The DA has written to the MEC, demanding that his Department, in collaboration with the SAPS, put together a child protection turnaround plan, with clear targets for reducing unresolved cases, improving investigations, strengthening support for child victims, and ensuring better coordination between SAPS, Social Development, Health, Education, Thuthuzela Care Centres, and the prosecuting authorities.
These damning figures were revealed by Nqatha in reply to a DA parliamentary question. The MEC also revealed that for the 2024/25 year, 155 children were murdered, 159 cases of child abuse were reported, and 2,410 child rape cases were reported.
South Africans deserve to feel safe again, and that must start with children being safe in their homes, schools, streets, and communities. Safe communities are built by governments that work, police who investigate properly, prosecutors who can take strong cases to court, and public spaces that are not abandoned to criminals.
The age breakdown in the reply is deeply disturbing. In 2025/26, 211 rape victims were between the ages of one and five, 456 were between five and ten, 689 were between ten and fifteen, and 744 were between fifteen and eighteen. These are children whose safety, dignity, and childhoods have been violently taken from them.
The reply further confirms that 1,214 child rape cases, 80 child murder cases, and 65 child abuse cases remained under investigation or unresolved in 2025/26
Successful prosecutions remain far below what is needed, with only 271 successful child rape prosecutions recorded in the same year against 2,103 reported cases.
Download response here.
The reasons given for unsuccessful prosecutions include children being unable to testify, the absence of witnesses, and late reporting in rape matters.
These are known risks in child protection cases, which is why the province should already have stronger child-sensitive investigation systems, properly resourced forensic social work capacity, survivor-centred evidence collection, and better case management from the moment a complaint is reported.
The Department’s stated plans rely heavily on awareness campaigns, school patrols, school searches, visits to liquor outlets, anti-bullying campaigns, and transport driver profiling. These interventions may have a role in prevention, but they cannot stand as the province’s main answer to thousands of child rape cases and rising child murder figures.
The DA’s approach is clear. Criminals must be caught, and cases must be properly investigated so that they can be successfully convicted.
Children cannot be protected solely through paperwork and awareness campaigns. Families need a policing and prosecution system that acts quickly, preserves evidence properly, supports traumatised children, and keeps dangerous offenders away from communities.
The people of the Eastern Cape deserve a government that treats violence against children as a provincial emergency, not as another set of statistics. The DA will continue to push for safer communities, stronger accountability, and a province where children can grow up with dignity and security.