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Wednesday 3 November 2010

ABUSE OF CHILDREN UNRELENTING

A total of 271 Swazi school pupils were sexually abused in the month of September (2010), according to official figures released last week.


The Swaziland Ministry of Education and Training said this was the number that contacted a ‘toll free’ phone number it set up to encourage pupils to report abuse.


The number of abuse cases rose from 26 in August.


The Times of Swaziland, the kingdom’s only independent daily newspaper, reports today (3 November 2010) that the total number of sexual abuse cases recorded by the ministry from January until September was 360.


The ministry said there was a direct link between poverty and sexual abuse.


The report also covered emotional abuse and physical abuse, mostly, the Times reports, pupils complained about the high number of caning strokes they got from teachers but there were also complaints about the manner they were punished by their parents, who might use fists and other unreasonable forms of punishment.

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