Travel Tip: Pop Culture and Cinema in Canada
Tshepang

In 2001 South Africa was devastated by the news of a brutal assault on a nine month old child, who later became known as Baby Tshepang. Six men stood accused of this horrific crime, which created an international media frenzy when the small, poverty stricken town of Louisvaleweg in the Northern Cape region was inundated with television crews and reporters. Later it was discovered that the six men had been wrongly accused, but their highly publicized trial sent shockwaves through the country and hundreds of similar stories surfaced in the wake of this tragic event, driving awareness toward this dreadful epidemic.

Lara Foot Newton’s play is motivated by the factual events surrounding Baby Tshepang, and she uses the story to raise focus on the 20,000 cases of sexual assault on children per year in South Africa, consequently identifying a widespread social affliction that affects communities all over the world.