A 39-year-old foster mother has been sentenced to 30 years in the Cape Town High Court for murdering a nine-month-old baby.
Priscilla Morris pleaded guilty to the murder of Casville France’s child, two counts of child abuse and obstruction of justice.
Western Cape National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila says Morris admitted months of abuse led to the child’s murder.
The child’s body was found in a shallow grave in Vrygrond in December 2021.
Ntabazalila says the court also found Morris unfit to work with children and ordered her name entered on the National Child Protection Register.
In the latest crime statistics for the period between July and September this year, Police Minister Bheki Chele said police were investigating 294 attempted murders of children and a further 1,895 cases of GBH assaults, with children the most victims.
Crime statistics also showed that between April and the end of September this year, around 558 children were killed in the country.
The public is accused of child abuse
Western Cape Children’s Commissioner Christina Nomda says ongoing violence against children is an indictment of South African society.
It comes after the bodies of two children, aged four and eight, were found in separate incidents in September.
Tamiya Botha’s body was found in a nearby schoolyard in Paarl East, while the body of an eight-year-old boy was found in the Sikala informal settlement in Philippi.
Nomdo says protecting children should be everyone’s responsibility.
The video below reports on the killing of Botha and another unidentified child:
-Additional reporting by SABC News