JOHANNESBURG: Crime-ravaged South Africa would be a much safer place if children were treated better by society, former president Nelson Mandela said on Wednesday.

In rare comments at an event organised by his eponymous children’s fund ahead of his 90th birthday next week, the Nobel peace prize-winner said it was his “dearest wish” that youngsters could enjoy happier childhoods.

“The driving force of the fund is to change the way society treats its children and its youth,” said Mandela at the cake-cutting ceremony.

“If it were true, children would be happier, families would be stronger, communities would be safer and the government would be at peace with its citizens.” South Africa is one of the world’s most crime-riven societies with an average of around 50 murders every day.

Crime statistics released last week showed that nearly 1,500 children were killed in 2007, an increase of 22 per cent on the previous 12-month period, while a similar number were victims of attempted murder.

Mandela, the icon of the South African anti-apartheid movement and who served as the country’s first black president from 1994-99, retired from public life five years ago.—AFP