South Africa is failing its children

The harrowing case of Joshlin Smith, whose disappearance still echoes in the national conscience despite related convictions, is not an isolated tragedy; it is a stark symptom of a silent, systemic failure.

As our lead reveals, the disappearance of children in South Africa is nothing short of a national crisis being catastrophically underestimated, underreported, and tragically mismanaged. How can a nation committed to protecting its young not even possess reliable statistics on how many children vanish each year?

Experts and NGOs struggle to bridge this data chasm, relying on fragmented figures that only hint at the terrifying scope of the problem — a truth hidden behind bureaucratic opacity and under-resourced police stations. Further compounding this crisis is the deeply concerning reluctance of police officials to open cases.

The immediate aftermath of a child's disappearance is the most critical window for recovery. Yet, far too often, desperate parents are met with scepticism, delays, and the lazy assumption that the child has merely run away. This stereotyping and lack of urgency, highlighted by experts, has fatal consequences, allowing precious hours to slip away and increasing the risk of children falling victim to trafficking and violence.

Perhaps the most baffling element of this failure is the non-use of the Amber Alert system. Launched in partnership with Meta, this tool offers a cheap, technology-driven solution, capable of reaching millions via Facebook and Instagram within minutes of a verified abduction.

The technology exists, the partnership exists, yet the system remains dormant. To have a life-saving mechanism at our fingertips — a globally proven tool for rapid, mass notification — and allow it to lapse into silent irrelevance is a collective shame and a fatal dereliction of duty.

Children are routinely declared the future of this country. Yet, when faced with peril, they are abandoned by the very systems designed to protect them. This national indifference, from the lack of data to the non-activation of a critical alert system, fundamentally breaks the social contract. South Africa must awaken to the fact that while we pay lip service to the future, we are allowing our present to fail our most vulnerable, one missing child at a time.