Criminologist Bianca van Aswegen on Joshlin Smith and the tragedy of SA’s missing children

Rebecca Mashigo, Rei Manuel, Shandrifa Louw, Baratang Makinta. The names go on and on, a grim roll call of missing children on a seemingly endless list.

The children all went missing in South Africa around the time Joshlin Smith disappeared in Saldanha Bay but they, like thousands of others, will remain unknown.

Bianca van Aswegen knows the situation only too well – her job as a criminologist and national coordinator for the non-profit organisation Missing Children South Africa has given her first-hand knowledge of a world where children become statistics, their cases gone cold and their names often forgotten.