Batho Pele - Missing in Inaction
The news is often dominated by a single important story, which sometimes "crowds out" others of comparable importance. So it was during the past week, when the passage of the Secrecy Bill through the National Assembly dominated media coverage.
Almost by chance I noticed a small side-bar report that, in a normal week, would have made headlines (see here).
It was the story of the four Mmupele children from a place called "Verdwaal" (which means "lost" in Afrikaans) who died of hunger and thirst in the veld as they went in search of their mothers who had gone to look for work or food on a neighbouring farm. The children were aged 9, 7, 6 and 2. They reportedly set out on their journey in a state of near starvation, and walked between 10 and 14 km's in the blazing sun (the temperature was reportedly over 40 degrees) before they collapsed and died, of dehydration and hunger. First the smaller two, who were found lying together. Then, some distance away, the older two. As if it could get any worse, the 6-year old was disabled, walked with a limp, and suffered from TB.
It is a story genuinely too ghastly to contemplate in a democracy with a Bill of Rights and a safety net of child grants intended to prevent children from starving to death.
The various reported accounts of the last days of Sebengu Mmupele (9), Mmapule (7, and the only girl), Olebongeng (6) and Oarabetswe (2) are as horrific as they seem incomprehensible.