Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Man punished severely after burning six-week-old baby with dry ice

Judge Papi Mosopa yesterday in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria imposed the minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment of which two years are suspended for five years on Gerhard Viljoen. This follows after he was found guilty of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm of his ex-girlfriend’s baby who was merely six weeks old in October 2020 when the crime was committed. The biological mother of the victim has not been accused yet, because she is currently still a minor. AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit acted in accordance with a watching brief in this case.

This follows after AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit during a media conference in July 2021 announced the Unit’s involvement in this case, as well as three other cases of child abuse. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) initially, despite overwhelming evidence, withdrew the charges against the accused in the Brits Magistrate’s Court. After the Private Prosecution Unit made representations to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in Gauteng and indicated that they would privately prosecute Viljoen, the DPP decided to institute prosecution and transfer the case to the high court.

Viljoen pleaded guilty and made a plea agreement with the State. The J88 of the baby contains a list of 12 injuries. Viljoen admitted that he burned the baby by holding him against the dry ice in his refrigerator. He administered various other injuries to the baby by hitting him repeatedly with the open hand and spatula over his whole body. He also admitted that, on another occasion, he had hit the baby with his fist when he wanted to hit the baby’s mother who had been kneeling over her baby at that time. He admitted that he should have foreseen that he could hit the baby. The NPA is currently considering charges against the biological mother of the baby, because she allegedly admitted to a kindergarten teacher that she had put her baby in a deep freeze if he cried too much.

“The Private Prosecution Unit welcomes the sentences against Viljoen, as cases of violence against women and children ought to be prioritised. We also want to congratulate the prosecutor with the successful prosecution of Viljoen, but we remain concerned about the state of prosecution in the Brits Magistrate’s Court where this case was initially struck of the roll,” says Natasha Venter, Advisor at AfriForum’s Private Prosecution Unit.