By Matefu Mokoena
And the story was the pain of children, who go missing daily. While some are found, others are still without trace. We also told of how the story of a young Western Cape girl, Joshlin Smith, is a sad picture of the cases of many vulnerable children in South Africa. The story was carried on this platform, Puisano News on March 20, 2025 with the headline “The pain of the little children.”
The Mail & Guardian newspaper of March 28 to April 3, 2025 delved deeper into the plight of our young ones with the headline “MISSING – Trafficked, abducted, sold, killed: The tragic story of the children who have disappeared without trace.”
“Of the more than 16,000 children who have been reported missing over 18 years, about 4,000 have never been found, despite police and family efforts,” reported the Mail & Guardian.
According to Mail & Guardian article, the Western Cape tops the list of provinces where most children were reported missing with 56, followed by the Free State with 42, Gauteng (38), Kwazulu-Natal (19), North West (15), Mpumalanga (9), Eastern Cape and Limpopo (2).
The provinces with the highest number of children still missing without trace were Gauteng (32), the Western Cape (16), Kwazulu-Natal (14), North West (12) and Eastern Cape (7).
