Zille has betrayed us again on child murders‚ say activists

NGOs known as the Child Protection Collaborative‚ who were among those who met Zille‚ released a statement on Friday criticising comments from Zille which claimed the groups had agreed on a university-led research project into the murders.

“We refute in the strongest terms the erroneous press release by the office of the Premier regarding the agreement reached with the civil society organisations‚” the statement said.

“Regretfully the premier‚ who indicated that the minutes of the meeting will be made available‚ did not wait for the minutes before releasing her erroneous press release.

“We state unequivocally that no agreement or consensus was reached in the meeting.”

NGOs estimate that more than 60 children have been murdered in the Western Cape so far this year.

Following Wednesday’s meeting‚ Zille's office issued a statement headed: "Premier Zille and NGOs agree to university-led research project on child murders".

According to Zille‚ the NGOs agreed to a proposal that specialist units at the University of Cape Town‚ Stellenbosch University and the University of the Western Cape should collate and analyse the key findings of various research projects‚ list the unanswered questions and determine whether these could be addressed through a commission of inquiry.

The director of the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture‚ Valdi Van Reenen-Le Roux‚ said it was not the first time Zille had presented a false representation of discussions between the groups.

“What has made us even more livid is that on two occasions she has released press statements that are not accurate and that are in fact not based on truth‚ [in terms of] of what they say and what [really] happened in the meetings‚” Van Reenen-Le Roux told TimesLIVE.

“In the first meeting we had with her in May she was only there for 15 minutes. Even then we said we first wanted to discuss the possibility of a commission of inquiry with our constituencies‚ but the very next day they issued a statement saying we had agreed to the research project‚ which we did not.

“Now‚ three months later‚ we have the same scenario playing itself out.”

The Trauma Centre‚ the Community Chest and other NGOs have lobbied Zille for months to set up a commission of inquiry into child murders.

The organisations believe it would allow people to testify about what is going on in their communities‚ while also holding government accountable.

They did not believe in the value of a research project as presented by the premier‚ and said it would only be worthwhile if it focused on policy gaps and challenges with government agencies.

“We said to her‚ 'it’s not how they died‚ it’s the why they died [that’s important]‚” Van Reenen-Le Roux said.

“If they are going to focus on a research project that is going to look at the justice system‚ human settlements‚ the DTI and all the various government agencies and what they are doing‚ then that’s going to be helpful.”