Cape Town - Western Cape Commissioner for Children Christina Nomdo said her recent trip to Mauritius was to learn from counterparts in Africa.
Nomdo was appointed as Commissioner for Children for a 5-year term from June 1, 2020, with the mandate to promote and protect the rights, needs and interests of children in the Western Cape.
Nomdo, with the Head of Branch for Investigation, Cameron Cyster, conducted a study visit to the Ombudsperson for Children, Rita Venkatasawmy, in Mauritius from April 11-14.
Nomdo’s Mauritius counterpart has operated since 2003. Nomdo also met the State President Prithvirajsing Roopun.
“We will continue to build diplomatic and strategic links with other Ombudspersons for Children across the world. If we want to be world-class, we need to know what is happening in the rest of the world and benchmark our practices accordingly. Child rights realisation is a global aspiration,” Nomdo said.
“We could learn about the details of their investigations procedures and share our investigations framework with them for advice. They were very interested to hear of our efforts to include children in governance,” Nomdo said.
Provincial Treasury has made it possible to hire three more permanent staff members, bringing the total number of staff to six, said Nomdo.
“The commissioner is not a front-line worker in the daily struggle to contain the incidents of violence affecting children. She needs to be strategic with her limited resources in the infancy stage of her office. Building capacity to fulfil the mandate of the office is of utmost importance,” Nomdo said.
Community activist and Manenberg Safety Forum chairperson Roegchanda Pascoe said that the Commissioner could unfortunately only give or make recommendations, and that is as far as her role goes.
“They do not have the power to change things really, so their focus is primarily awareness programmes and what they are called to, they can then make a recommendation. They do not have the power for the recommendation to be enforced and I think that is the problem with the commissioner that we are currently faced with,” Pascoe said.
“As much as we stand for children’s rights, our systems are not equipped and not written in a way to empower the child. The children’s commissioner has been set up for a disaster.”