A mother from Tarlton is at a loss for words after her ten-year-old son was allegedly beaten by four security guards when he was caught stealing mealies from a local farmer’s fields.
Mapule Kabai, the mother of ten-year-old Tshiamo Kabai said she felt the situation was handled incorrectly and that the security guards should have arrested him and phoned her, rather than ‘taking the law into their own hands’.
On Saturday, April 23 at about 14:45 she received a call from her neighbour who told her that her son had been beaten for stealing mealies with his friend.
He allegedly told the guards that he and his friend had stolen the mealies and they started to chase him. His friend managed to run away but the four men caught him.
They reportedly took him to their yard where they tied him up with steel wire and beat him.
I don’t know whether they used a sjambok or a plastic zoro,” said Kabai.
She claimed that her son could not remember how long the incident lasted because he eventually lost consciousness and was later woken up by the security guards to show them where he lived.
The neighbour told the News that when they dropped the boy off at home they told her that they had beaten him and that they were claiming damages of R1 200 from his mother for the broken fence.
Kabai said her son told her that the fence was already open when they got there. A very distraught Kabai went to the Tarlton Police Station that evening to open a case of assault against the four men, and according to the community they were arrested the following day. The case was transferred to the Child Protection Unit.
What angered Kabai even more was that she allegedly received a visit from the local councillor that Sunday. According to her he told her that if she did not drop the case against the men, the farmer would be well within his rights to open a case of theft and trespassing against the boy.
But Kabai said she refused to withdraw the case. She added that as far as she was aware a case of theft and trespassing was later opened against her son as she received a visit from a local detective.
The News asked Sergeant Carmen Hendricks for feedback on the case number provided, and she confirmed that a case of assault GBH had been opened, but the case did not involve the ten-year-old boy.
When the News visited the family the bruises were still clearly visible on the young boy’s body. The family told the News that the case has been heard in court and was postponed to June 21.
