What to do with SA's Isis brides? Plus 5 highlights from 'Vrye Weekblad'

There is no plan on the table for the South African widows of Isis fighters and their children who want to come home.

These families are being held in camps in northern Syria and at least seven women have indicated that they may want to return to this country.

About 60 to 100 SA men left the country in 2016 to join Isis, according to a report by the Institute for Security Studies, but some analysts estimate that it could be about 120.

Officials from the departments of international relations and co-operation and justice, as well as intelligence and safety services, are now in urgent talks to discuss the issue, Vrye Weekblad has learnt.  

The biggest issues that need to be resolved are whether and how these women and children will be deradicalised and if they should be allowed to return to the communities they came from, should be held in jail or if they should be allowed to return at all. The nationality of the children, who were born in either Iraq or Syria, is also in question.

So what is our government to do?

Read all about it in this week's edition of Afrikaans digital weekly Vrye Weekblad.

The government could “forget and ignore” them and leave these women and children to their own devices in a harsh environment where violence is a constant and extremism is enforced.

It won't be easy to bring them back and prosecute them. Many of the women deny ever being members of Isis and it is a difficult process to work with other countries and to get depositions from victims.

Even if they were sent to jail and “the keys thrown away”, jails are often the ideal breeding ground for extremist ideologies.

The last option government has is to allow these women and children to return to SA and put them into intervention programmes to be deradicalised.

The question is whether we have the knowledge, understanding and ability to successfully implement such programmes.

Read the full article in this week's Vrye Weekblad

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