NELSPRUIT – The trial of Ms Christine Bruins, a former day-care mother who is being charged with child abuse, continued in the local Regional Court this week. One of her former employees gave a horrific account of the alleged abuse.
Ms Lettie Magagula who worked as a domestic worker at Baby Haven Daycare Centre, recalled alleged incidents in 2010, but couldn’t refer to specific instances or dates.
Magagula alleged that Bruins had used diapers to tie up babies if they screamed and wouldn’t eat, drink or sleep. When the accused’s defence attorney, Mr Coert Jordaan asked Magagula what she did to put a stop to it, she answered that she was too afraid to do anything. She felt it was wrong and that was why she and Ms Janet Mtetwa had reported the case. Mtetwa was also a former employee of Baby Haven and she too had previously testified against Bruins.
Jordaan said Mtetwa had contradicted herself and accused her of lying.
This week he told the court that Magagula’s statement to the police differed from her court version of events. He asked magistrate Mr André Geldenhuys to withdraw the case, because the testimonies of the key witnesses were contradictory.
Prosecutor Ms Magda Marais told the court that the case was already three years old and that both workers were illiterate. Mtetwa previously alleged in court that the children were forced to eat so much that they would vomit, which was allegedly given to them to eat. They were also hit. Magagula had reiterated the same allegations in her testimony. She also said Bruins took the babies’ pacifiers, rubbed them on the ground or in cat faeces and put it back in their mouths.
She explained to the court that there were never any open wounds on the children but there were bruises, which Bruins tried to hide by putting ice on, “so that the parents would not notice”.
Magagula continued by alleging that the accused would put a pacifier in a baby’s mouth and tie a diaper around his/her head to ensure it stayed in his/her mouth. She also said that she started praying to God, asking Him to help her because “white people won’t believe black people when they talk of such things”.
The women laid charges against Bruins shortly after this. She showed the court how she allegedly threw babies to the ground or onto their beds, from hip height.
The trial was postponed to July 25.
