Why do so many children go missing in South Africa?

Today, Africa Daily’s Mpho Lakaje sits down with Johannesburg mother Mankepe Matsoakeletse. Her daughter, seven-year-old Agnes, went missing in August 1989. She hasn’t stopped searching for her. “I do not know if she is alive or struggling or if she is eating. That's why I cannot give up. I cannot forget because I do not know what kind of life she is living where she is, if she is still alive”, she says. This conversation comes as South Africa will be commemorating Child Protection Week, between the 29th of May and June the 5th. According to the police, almost 700 youngsters were reported missing between 2023 and 2024. More than 470 of them were found and reunited with their families, the rest were either found dead or never accounted for at all. Tragically, the trend continued the following year, with more than 200 youngsters losing their lives or vanishing without a trace. Mpho will also be hearing from Bianca van Aswegeng and Brigadier Attie Lamprecht of the South African Police Service.