Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Media statements | Private prosecution Media statements

Police arrests parents of abused baby after AfriForum intervenes

By 19/08/202003/11/2020

The SAPS today arrested the parents of a six-month-old baby girl on criminal charges of attempted murder, assault with the intention to do grievous bodily harm and child abuse. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit supported doctors on 24 July 2020 to lay these criminal charges. The baby is currently in safe custody.

The baby was admitted to a Pretoria hospital in July with various bone fractures (which, according to the doctors, had not been sustained simultaneously) and injuries that indicated attempted murder, assault with the intention to do grievous bodily harm and child abuse. She was admitted to the same hospital in April 2020 (when she was five weeks old) – also with injuries that point to child abuse. Her doctors and a private social worker then laid charges with the SAPS and the Department of Social Development, recommending that the child be removed from her parents’ custody. Although the parents appeared in court, the charges against the father were dropped because of an apparent lack of evidence. The SAPS then summarily closed the docket. At the time, the baby had been in the temporary care of her grandmother but was then returned to her parents.

According to Andrew Leask, Head Investigator at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit, AfriForum welcomes the arrests. “It is regrettable, however, that the system failed this vulnerable child in the first place and allowed earlier in the year for the child to be returned into a life-threatening environment. The Private Prosecution Unit will monitor the case and ensure that the baby receives the necessary protection and that the guilty parties are brought to book.”

Read the previous media statements here: