Pupils find body of missing Paarl girl, 4, in bushes next to school rugby field

A four-year-old girl who went missing in Paarl in the Western Cape on Sunday was found dead on Monday afternoon.

Police spokesperson Capt Frederick van Wyk said the girl was reported missing at the Paarl East police station at 4pm on Sunday.

“A search party was arranged and on Monday afternoon scholars at a primary school found her body in the bushes next to the school's rugby field. The deceased was found with injuries to her body. A murder investigation has been opened,” Van Wyk said.

Action Society, a non-profit organisation which helps victims of violent crime, said a spate of attacks against the vulnerable proved police were not curbing crime.

Apart from the death of the four-year-old girl, a 36-year-old woman was burnt alive by her ex-boyfriend in Thembisa, northeast of Johannesburg. Her son is fighting for his life in ICU, the organisation said.

“It is bad — and it just never ends,” said Ian Cameron, director of community safety at Action Society.

“Whatever the government and police think and announce they are doing to curb crime and hold the guilty accountable in this country is not working.”

The organisation said between April and June 2022, almost 6,500 people were murdered, 243 of them children.

Police investigated attempted murder dockets for more than 1,400 women and children.

The country recorded more than 9,500 rape cases, but only 286 rapists were convicted.

“We thought the previous quarter was the most brutal of the past 20 years, but looking at the past week and month, it seems this current quarter will be worse,” Cameron added.

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