“It’s time to be the man. It’s time to step up and take responsibility for your household. Provide for them, take care of them and protect them. Make sure your boys are raised to respect and protect women and that your children know they have responsibilities as law-abiding citizens of our country.” says Ian Cameron, spokesperson for Action Society.
According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA)’s report on Children’s Education and Well-being in South Africa (2018), child deaths are on the rise in South Africa. In 2017, unnatural causes of death among children aged 5 – 9 rose to 39,1% from 23,8% in 2007. The percentage of toddlers aged 1–4 who died from unnatural causes more than doubled from 10,9% in 2007 to 22,4% in 2017. Similarly, unnatural deaths among under-one-year-old children rose from 2,6% in 2007 to 3,4% in 2017.
Most children in South Africa live in non-standard family structures, usually with only one of their biological parents. In 2018, twice as many children had a co-resident mother (76.4%) compared to those who had a co-resident father (36.4%).
Action Society appeals to fathers from all walks of life in South Africa to start taking up their parenting responsibility. In a country where GBV is rife and 116 rape cases are reported every day it is time for the men in our communities to stand up, be part of their children’s lives and raise kids that can take up their place as law-abiding citizens in society.
Child abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect and child murder are worrying signs of a deteriorating society. A society where protection of children is not a priority. Absent fathers leave more than just an empty seat at the table ̶ they leave women and children compelled to fend for themselves, exposed and unprotected.
ISSUED BY: Action Society
DATE: 18 August 2021
1 Comment
Veritas · 19th August 2021 at 11:57 am
Dear Ian
It’s difficult to tell whether you are genuinely ignorant or willfully malicious in your article, but what you are doing is shaming fathers/men into acting in defence of women/girls. You automatically elevate the value of girls over that of boys, in doing so you have already set the stage for psychological manipulation of the narrative. You place the burden and responsibility solely on boys to respect and protect girls, should both sexes not be equally responsible?
You remove all agency and responsibility on the part of women as if they are completely at the mercy of oppressive men, all the time. This is typical “white knighting” behaviour and I commend you for making a valiant attempt at rescuing these fair helpless damsels. How noble, how brave, what a treasure you are to the female sex.
The stats you quoted on child death rates are indeed alarming and cause for great concern, but you have overlooked or deliberately omitted one fundamental and important point. The children in that age group are overwhelmingly in the care of females, either the biological mother, granny or aunts.
If 76.4% of children have a co-resident mother and the number of those same children are doubling from unnatural deaths, why is there no national inquiry into this tragedy.
It should cause outrage, but by vilifying men and portraying them in the media as default abusers, you have shifted the blame and protected the real offenders.
There are no absent fathers, there are however millions of fathers who have been surgically removed from their children’s life. This is not a theory or abstract idea that I conjured up, it is a fact, its truth and its real. The legal system in conjunction with social services and the legal profession is heavily biased against fathers. There exists a very well-funded, planned and coordinated agenda against men in general and fathers in particular. Fathers are routinely cut out from their children’s lives by these entities, I am one of them. We are not absent out of choice.
How do you expect fathers to prevent the rape of their daughters when they are alienated with false protection orders barring them from contact? When social workers do everything possible including making false reports to judges and magistrates. When lawyers make “orders” instructing on care and contact arrangements?
Ian, if you truly care in resolving these pressing issues, I challenge you to a public debate so these matters can be ventilated in the court of public opinion. If you truly want to make a difference, aside from empty platitudes on the internet, lets expose this rot, lets air it in the public domain, let’s give it the attention it deserves. Let us establish a national commission of inquiry together.
My offer stands, I await your reply.