Community breakdown blamed for spike in violence affecting children

Com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist and gen­er­al man­ag­er of the ROOTS Foun­da­tion, Mti­ma Sol­wazi, says re­cent in­ci­dents in which chil­dren have been mur­dered, wound­ed or nar­row­ly es­caped gun­fire point to a break­down of com­mu­ni­ty-lev­el prin­ci­ples.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia on Tues­day evening, Sol­wazi lament­ed that, un­like in the past when even crim­i­nals ob­served cer­tain codes of con­duct, to­day’s of­fend­ers are more un­pre­dictable and show lit­tle re­straint, even where chil­dren are con­cerned.

“We have seen this pat­tern evolv­ing where now there is no re­gard what­so­ev­er, not on­ly for chil­dren but for women. As strange as it may seem, there were rules gov­ern­ing street be­hav­iour.