‘Baby Nikita’ abuse, death doesn’t exist in vacuum, mourners told
Member of the Gauteng legislature, Bishop Dulton Adams, says unemployment and social ills are contributing factors in the child abuse cases that have rocked Coloured communities.
Adams spoke at the funeral of the four-year-old Eldorado Park girl, known as Baby Nikita, whose death sent shockwaves across the Eldorado Park community.
Her parents have since been arrested in connection with the girl’s death.
On Monday, both parents appeared before the Protea Magistrate's Court, where they abandoned their formal bail application.
The father is facing charges of murder, rape, compelled rape, child abuse, and assault.
Adams pleaded with the public to refrain from labelling the coloured community based on the four women currently attending court for child abuse cases.
Adams cited the case of Jayden Lee Meek, Joshlin Smith and the four-year-old in Johannesburg who was seen on video smoking drugs in the presence of his mother.
“These stories do not exist in the social political vacuum; they reflect a much deeper crisis,” said Adamas.
“Coloured women are portrayed and perceived as crazy, they are seen as immoral, violent, deficient and unfit for motherhood. I push back that frontier.”
“That is not the identity of our women. You cannot look at the death and abuse of our children in isolation. Let the government know that it is the social ills in our communities, the social monsters in our communities, the apartheid spatial system, unemployment and the marginalisation of our women that have brought us here today.”
Adams added that a permanent solution was needed to fight violence against children, as the four-year-old’s death cannot be “just another incident”.
“We need to ask ourselves, ‘What now?’ We cannot just walk away; otherwise, it will be an indictment of us as a people. We need to rise up. We need to change the stigma."
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