What has become of a country where a child is stabbed?

A 12-year-old boy was playing soccer with his friends in an open field near his home in Goodwood in Cape Town one afternoon this week when he was approached by a man who asked him his name.

According to reports the boy identified himself, after which the man then tripped him and while he was lying on the ground started stabbing him with a sharp object.

His grandfather told The Times the boy had nine stab wounds on the one hand and seven stab wounds on the other, and was stabbed in the neck.

His mom, expressing probably most people's feelings about the attack, was quoted as saying: "I wouldn't know who would do something like that. He's only 12."

A 31-year-old man, Moheim Salie, appeared in court in connection with the stabbing, while the boy was undergoing surgery to repair severed tendons in his hands.

While Salie was swaying from side to side in the dock, the boy's family was waiting to hear if he would ever have the use of his hands again - assuming he survives.

What has become of our country when children cannot play a fun game of soccer without being almost stabbed to death by a passer-by?

Just this week, a UK report on cyber-bullying revealed that face-to-face bullying is still the most common form of bullying.

While parents can try to teach their children how to deal with bullies, how does one protect your child from a brutal stab attack in a park?

Have we reached a point at which we have to lock up our children in their homes - instead of the perpetrators of vicious crimes against children being locked away from society forever?