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By Lineo Lesemane

Digital Lifestyle Journalist


Karlien van Jaarsveld details a chilling restaurant child mistreatment incident

“I am deeply saddened today to the core of my bones…”


Afrikaans pop star Karlien van Jaarsveld penned a lengthy, heartbreaking post detailing an incident she witnessed at a restaurant.

She said she was chilling with her husband when she realised something was wrong on the table behind them.

“I estimate her to be six years old. She sat at the table with her mother and father… I had been checking on her mom from the start, acting funny. Then she calls her ‘princess’ in a snow-white stepmother-type tone and says to her: ‘what are we going to do with you?’.”

“The little girl says nothing. She just looks scared at the mother. ‘We are ashamed of you. You have no respect for me, and you are just like that ugly princess of Shrek,’ the mother said,” as quoted by Karlien.

She said the woman continued to say hurtful things to the little girl. She added: “While the little girl just listens to what the mother says, she says nothing back to her. I only see big, scared eyes looking at a cruel adult who tries to break her with every sentence. ‘You put too much sugar in your tea!’. The little girl is sorry and then silent again…“

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It got physical

Karlien said the little girl eventually took two purple toys and played with them, but the mother was not backing down.

“How long must I pack stuff for you? “She asks the father: “How are we going to handle the child?” It can’t go on like this that I have to pack and do things for her.

“The mom kept saying things like how disappointed she was in her, and she really didn’t know what they were going to do with her. When the little girl looked up again and said she was sorry, the mother violently grabbed her by her arm and dragged her across the table. The little girl starts to cry terribly and is very terrible.”

Karlien’s intervention

The singer said she quickly jumped out of her chair, ran to their table, and grabbed the mother by the shoulder, telling her to stop.

“Then the father turned to me and said, ‘Don’t worry, I have everything under control.’ The mother was immediately innocent and said to the little girl: ‘Look how you upset the auntie, no my darling, it’s not right. Look again at what you did to us. You disappointed us again. Come, darling, we’ll go for a ride’.”

Karlien said she is still struggling to get over the incident and hopes the little girl is okay wherever she is.

“I am deeply saddened today to the core of my bones. I feel how the pain is sitting on my body. I feel nauseous, and I think of her now and then and cry. Last night, I was angry. Today I’m just hurt for her,” she said.

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