C Anzio Jacobs

THE EXCLUDED CHILD OP-ED What is required is a rethinking of how child protection systems conceptualise vulnerability, how they engage power and how they allocate care. A young boy looks at the flooding in the Middlepos informal settlement in Saldanha, Western Cape, on 26 June 2025. (Photo: Kristin Engel) The claim that “the boy child is being left behind” has gained increasing traction in public discourse. Yet, as it is currently used, the phrase obscures more than it reveals.