GAUTENG TOP CHILD PROTECTORS HONOURED!

The last MAB Gauteng awards was hosted in February 2010. This project, hosted for the last 5 years, will temporarily come to a standstill until sponsorship for this year can be secured. Since it’s launch in 2005, it has become one of the most supported events hosted by the community for the police and the SAPS Gauteng Provincial office has praised MAB numerous times for the impact this award has had on the service delivery of child protection officers.

Once again, MAB celebrated outstanding service by the following individuals and units:
BEST PERFORMER 1ST : Insp Swart Sebokeng FCS
This detective has secured many life sentences in rape cases, in particular the case of a house robbery in 2004 where 3 women where attacked and repeatedly raped. After a very long court case five suspects were convicted and received a total of 67 years imprisonment.

BEST PERFORMER 2ND - Jointly Constable Zwane (Reiger Park) & Constable Molapo (Westonaria)
Constable Zwane is a young detective who managed to secure a life imprisonment on her first rape case. Contable Molapo of Westonaria (a previous winner) was responsible for the arrest and conviction of a rapist in a child-rape case where several children where raped during a long period of 2 years. A very difficult case to prove, but never the less she managed to secure a conviction of 24 years in prison.

BEST PERFORMER 3RD –Jointly Constable Mtshwene (Krugersdorp) & SGT KOENIATE (Jeppe)
Constable Mtshwene was responsible for the arrest of two rape suspects who robbed and raped a 20 year old girl coming back from work repeatedly. The two accusers were later sentenced to 28 and 25 years imprisonment. Sgt Koenaite secured the arrest and a 18 year imprisonment sentence for the rape of a victim by her uncle who overpowered her as she was alone in her house and then threatened her with death.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT - Inspector November & Inspector Ndobe
In 2009 a young girl as abducted by 3 men whilst walking home. They took her to a nearby school and then repeatedly raped her and assaulted her. The members arrested all the perpetrators and secured life sentences for each one of them. Although the victim passed away before the case was finalized, her family will have the assurance that these perpetrators will not be able to hurt anyone else.
Constable Ndobe inherited an old case in which a 5 year old was raped by her grandfather. What made the case very difficult was that the young child could not express herself. Even though this member was brand new to the FCS unit, she managed to complete a thorough investigation and secured 20 year imprisonment.

BEST STATION COMMISSIONER – Director Mthombheni (Pretoria Central)
Director Mthombheni of Pretoria Central SAPS received this award for his dedication to implement supporting structures for the FCS detectives at his station. The first Matla A Bana Child-Friendly Reporting facility in Pretoria was opened at his station in January.

BEST FCS COMMANDER - Capt Buthelezi of Jeppe
This commander is a passionate dedicated person who leads by example. She is very supportive of her members. She doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge her members or other role players when the job is done! Teamwork is her motto!

Best FCS Section – Krugersdorp FCS
For investigation of high profile cases which included a place of safety abusing children and a well known business man abusing several children.

SERVICE EXCELLENCE - Sgt Mpiko (Krugersdorp FCS) & Mrs Leonore Louw (Reach Africa)
Sgt Mpiko received this award for the arrest of a father who raped his 12 year old girl. It was her outstanding skills which secured a disclosure by the child in a few hours, resulting in the immediate arrest. The case was closed in a three days and the father sentenced to 19 years imprisonment.

Mrs Leonore Louw (Reach Africa) has donated more than R1 million worth in training to the Matla A Bana Soft Skills training program. This program aims to equip Child Protection officers in soft skills needed to deal with victims. More than 1000 police officers in Gauteng and the Western Cape have been trained by her company. It is the support from individuals like her, that will make an impact on the secondary abuse of rape victims.

Thank you to all the sponsors who made this possible!

MAB opens Child Friendly Facility in Pretoria

The nearing Soccer World Cup is awaited with great excitement by many, but officers working in the field of child protection are approaching this great event with serious concerns. Human trafficking, child rape and an influx of paedophiles are just some of the many challenges they will have to face. Apart from the severe trauma during rape, victims of this type if crime is often exposed to the secondary trauma of the reporting system. Many police stations do not have the facilities to take statements in a victim friendly environment and doctors are often not trained to do the forensic medical examination.

Pretoria Central Police station however now will be able to offer child-victims the care and service needed when the public report crimes here. This is due to the opening of a child-friendly reporting facility this week. Boasting a private waiting area, child-friendly assessment room and a monitoring room, equipped with state-of-the art recording facilities, the facility is only one of four in Gauteng.

Matla A Bana CEO and founder, ex-hostage Monique Strydom, said that many NGO’s during the last year faced the challenge of keeping important projects running. A dramatic decrease in funding support by donors to NGO’s has resulted to the closure of many of these much needed service. NGO’s have to become more creative in getting projects done. In this case it was the public who had a big hand in it. Funds raised with the Nando’s 94.7 Highveld Peri Peri cruise in 2009, together with co-sponsor Ellerines made this facility a reality.

In his speech, Mr Sedick Arendse, Managing Executive of Ellerines, confirmed the importance the media play in making children and parents aware of the work that SAPS and Matla A Bana do. He believes that children will disclose more readily if they know that facilities like this are available.

In order to secure continued support, the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences detectives and staff based at the station, have been “adopted” by Kerk Sonder Mure, a Centurion church, who will need after their spiritual and other needs.

In a recent research report release by Solidarity, it was stated that a child is raped in South Africa every 3 minutes and that only 30% of crimes against children are reported. With alarming statistics like this, and the hidden threat that the World Cup Soccer brings, one would hope that many more facilities like this will be seen at police stations.

MANY THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!

Xtremeforkids Update

After his terrible accident Jos is hopefully back in the saddle. The should be in Addis Ababa today, but cell phone reception is so bad, we have not had any news for a while from Jos.

Xtremeforkids Update

Jos started his extreme cycling trip in aid of Malta A Bana on 16 January. Today is the first rest day and he has seen some challenging times! He had to cope with camping (which is not very good at) and severe head winds - resulting in 40% of the riders not completing this specific leg. But Jos is hanging in there. Today is a rest day in Luxor - so hopefully he will be doing a bit of the touristy stuff.

So far Jos has managed to raise nearly R 60 000 for Matla A Bana. We still need to get about 36 days sponsored - so if you feel you would like to help, please visit http://xtremeforkids.blogspot.com/ or http://matlaabana.co.za/ (Click on Xtreme logo).

YOU GO JOS!

Thank you Minuteman

Minuteman Press sponsored a colourful banner for Matla A Bana WC. Thanx guys - now people can see who we are!

MAB brings happiness

On Friday MAB hosted a Christmas party for 35 child victims from Nyanga FCS and Mitchells Plain FCS . This was made possible by the kind sponsorship of Cape Garden Centre. The kids, ages 3 to 12, spent the morning playing in the play park. They were treated the colourful party packs and there where many smiles when they received their gifts. One 4 year old boy stood looking at his gift with big eyes - this was the first time he ever got a gift! Peter Van Niekerk, owner of Cape Garden Centre, received his MAB Incentive award during this event and told the kids that they were the future of South Africa and that people should love and honour them.

Thank you Peter for creating these very special memories!

MAB awards rape cops

Panel member, Burger Van Der Merwe, Lithle Petros and Monique Strydom

For more than five years one of South Africa’s worst serial rapists, Tsediso Letsoenya, prayed on women in the Cape Flats. He was so arrogant that he would not pray on lone women, but would target couples or small groups of friends. The way he instructed the victims, as well as how victims described his demeanour and mannerisms, made the investigating team suspect that he might have had military training. After many months of investigation, Letsoenya was arrested and this year he was found guilty several charges including 28 accounts of rape. In July 2009 he was sentenced to five life sentences and a further 243 years of imprisonment.
Today, two of the cops who put him behind bars, received recognition for their efforts, when the where awarded the Matla A Bana Outstanding Service award. Supt Alma Wiese, who was the project leader and Inspector Mbuya, both based at the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit, spent endless hours looking for this rapist. The trail judge, Mr Justice J Motala, said that he would like to commend the work of the members of SAPS for they have clearly devoted much time and effort and their dedication and diligence deserves the highest praise.
The Matla A Bana Incentive awards is hosted in the Western Cape twice a year and this community initiative is to recognise members of the SAPS FCS units who have excelled in the arrest and conviction of perpetrators of crimes against women and children.
Guest speaker, Mr Gasant Adaber (Executive Editor Cape Argus), said in his speech that the public need to be made aware of the outstanding service delivered by dedicated police officers. He also said that the media should work much closer with the police in assisting to find missing children. He used the case of the two children who went missing on route to their mother this week and said the media can assist in finding the children by running these stories. The public however needs to get the info to the media much quicker and the police need to update the media on the progress.
Three other FCS detectives were awarded in the Best Performer Category, based on their arrest rates, conviction rates and community involvement. The top FCS detective in the Western Cape went to Inspector Borg stationed at George FCS, who serves an area or 200 kilometres and 7 police stations. He secured 93 years in sentencing and had a 96% arrest rate for the period. Second and third prize went to Inspector Hendricks (Khayelitsha FCS) and Inspector Mostert (Worcestor FCS) respectively. Both these members have arrest rates of more than 95%.
Businessman, Peter Van Niekerk owner of Cape Garden Centre, was the one of two recipients of the Service Excellence Award for his support to the Child Protection Units and Matla A Bana. Commissioner Petros (WC Provincial Commissioner) the second recipient was awarded for his persistence in not decentralising the FCS units and his dedication to working with NGO’s to help child victims. His fifteen year old daughter, Lithle Petros received the award, as well as a special Build –A-Bear dressed in a golf outfit complete with golf clubs! Apparently the commissioner is on a well-deserved break playing golf somewhere!
In her closing, Matla A Bana CEO, Monique Strydom, used the example the book Chicken Soup of the Soul, which was rejected 140 times before it was published and sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, to inspire these police detectives to not give up. She said that they were indeed the guardians of the city who had to look after our children.

Thank you to our sponsors:

What we will do for charity

Monique, Flo (Friends of Child Protection, Edith & Pieter)

Sometimes going the extra mile for charity means lot of pain and suffering. As Monique Strydom, who went spinning for the first time in her life - to help abused children. At the Friends of Child Protection spinning day, Monique joined husband Callie, Edith Kriel (Child Trauma Centre) and her husband, Pieter. It was one hour of serious suffering and we heard that she could not walk the next few days...!

Do you know what is going on out there?

A 3-year old girl is abducted from here Creche in Khayelitsha. Her little body is found in an informal settlement. The FCS unit arrests group of men.

A suspect takes his ex-girl friend into a bush. He rapes and tortures her for two days. She is extremely traumatized. He is arrested and sentenced for 31 years. In the court he attacks his victim with a sharpened toothbrush.

A young girl is attacked when she fetches water. She is taken to an uninhabited shacked where he rapes her. He keeps her there and rapes her several more times until the next night when she eventually manages to escape. He was arrested and was sentenced for 22 years.

An 18 year old girl, on her way to work, is kidnapped at gunpoint and taken back to her house where her younger sister opens the door. In full view of two minor children, he rapes both girls. He keeps on threatening to shoot them. Eventually the younger kids manage to escape and get help. He is arrested and sentenced to 25 years.

Two 12 year old girls are lured into a deserted spot by a 32 year old man. He sexually assault and rapes both. They are severely traumatized. He is eventually arrested and receives two sentences of 10 years each for Indecent assault and two Life Imprisonment sentences for the two rapes.

The mother of a 12 year old girl sends her brother to wake her up for school. He find her in a pool of blood in her bed. The perpetrator is her uncle who raped her during the night and then tried to kill her. She survives, he is arrested and gets 20 years.

Expert warns against child trafficking during 2010

While the 2010 soccer showpiece next year will bring an influx of tourists and opportunities, it will also bring child predators. There has already been marked increase in child trafficking in the country and the targets are mainly boys under the age of 18 years.
That is the warning of Professor Susan Kreston, a consultant to governments and NGOs on child abuse and exploitation issues. She says a study last year, which looked at the internal trafficking of children in the country, saw in increase for pornographic purposes.
“Child trafficking is the removal of the child from a safe environment. With the levels of poverty in South Africa, visitors are seen as wealthy. With the World Cup, the environment will be ripe for exploitation”.
Children can be lured with tickets to matches or be enticed with opportunities to make money.
“We are very concerned about it. If just a tiny number of visitors engage in child trafficking or child pornography, it’s going to be a problem. Investigation will be difficult as these people will go back to their countries. The children won’t know there names,” says Professor Kreston.
“The treat is very real. Now we have children who will be out of school for five weeks because they have holidays during the tournament. When the children are in school we know where they are for six hours a day. We won’t know where they are at all for the whole five weeks.”
Vanessa Scholtz (Tygertalk)

Note : MAB is alarmed by reports coming in from areas where the mothers are training the 10 year olds to do “messages”, because as they put it “the uncles will pay a lot for it”.

Vodacom Heroes do it again!

Captain Zwane GKS (Gauteng Province), Thenjiwe (Vodacom Foundation), Lizel (MAB) and Melenie (Vodacom Foundation)

Vodacom Yebo Heroes with Rabie Ridge FCS detectives.

On Friday, 23 October the Vodacom heroes were in action from early morning, packing the Vodacom Comfort packs. These packs are supplied to the police to give to children when they report crimes. It is an emergency pack and contains something to eat and drink, a soft toy, colouring book and crayons and also sanitary pads, panties, tissues, toothpast and a brush and deodorant. The 220 comfort packs were distributed to Child Protection officers at Garsfontein, Pta Central, Rabie Ridge, Sandton, Krugersdorp, Kliptown and Roodepoort Stations.
Thank you to the Vodacom volunteers for helping us with this special taks and thank you to Vodacom Foundation for making this possible!

Thank you Carlswald Spar

Lucia Odendal (Carlswald Spar) has been a long time supporter of MAB. Whenever we need catering for making our police members feel special or have a special celebration, she is there to help! Lucia, thanx for the great food and for always being there for us!

Going xtreme for our kids

Xtremeforkids is a fundraising initiative by Jos Malerbe in partnership with Matla A Bana – A voice against child abuse. Jos is one of the participants in the 2010 Tour D’Afrique Bicycle Race. Jos’s aim is to raise more than R100 000 for Matla A Bana and to use this as a vehicle (or bicycle!) to spread the message that children should be protected and loved not abused.

Jos will be departing on 16 January 2010. We would like to wish him the best of luck.

You can support us and inspire him, by sponsoring one of the many daily legs. For more information please visit - http://xtremeforkids.blogspot.com/ or book your leg on http://matlaabana.co.za/.

MAB assists with Child Trauma Training

MAB will be assisting the Child Trauma Centre to host several training courses in the Western Cape for representatives of the Department of Social Development and NGO’s in the region. Subjects covered will include Working with children, Working with families, Prevention & Early Intervention, Compassion Fatigue and Program planning. Seven clusters and 140 social workers will benefit from this training that will run from October 2009 to June 2010. This project is sponsored by the Department of Social Development.

First Training in Debriefing starts

On Friday a group of 19 Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Commanders and Forensic Social Workers in the Western Cape, received training in Conflict Management. This is the first of a series of programs designed to assist members in debriefing and stress management. Earlier this year Commissioner Petros recognised the need for debriefing of members and asked Matla A Bana to address this need.
There is a high rate of divorce, depressing, burn-out and even suicide under these members.
Approximately R 100 000 is needed to host the full program per unit. Should you be interested in sponsoring such a program, please contact us.

We would like to thank the Ferreiras for donating the conference venue and Reach Africa for once again assisting us with the training.