NELSPRUIT – A day-care mother, Ms Christina Bruins (44) who is charged with child abuse, appeared in the Regional Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
The trial was postponed to May 13 and 14.
Bruins ran a day-care centre in White River.
Her ex-domestic worker Ms Janet Mtetwa had previously testified that Bruins had rubbed the babies dummies in the mud that cats had urinated and defecated in. She had stated that Bruins fed the children until they threw up and then she would make them eat their own vomit.
Media had also reported that a baby in the Baby Haven Daycare Centre which the accused had run, had died on April 2, 2008. But according to state prosecutor, Ms Magda Marais, the post-mortem stated that the baby had died from pneumonia.
Yet, Bruins was arrested on October 30, 2010 after two of her staff members reported her to social workers. She apparently immediately closed the centre after she was apprehended.
The police then did an inquiry into the death of the baby, but allegedly the parents were too traumatised from the incident to take it further.
Bruins is currently out on bail of R3 000.
