Family of a 2-year-old ‘rape victim’ demands justice

UPDATE: EFF demands justice in child rape

The family said they needed justice to stop such crimes from happening to anybody else.

The Department of Health said it was looking into this matter.

The mother of the child said she would be at ease if the family would get the camera footage of the ward where her daughter was admitted, which might help in finding the culprit.

“We need that culprit to be found. He cannot be roaming around as if he did nothing. The way he committed this crime shows that it was not his first time doing it. He is used to getting away with it. We need justice and we are not backing down from that,” said the aunt of the child.

“We asked the hospital to show us footage from outside the ward so we can see the people who went in and out. They (the hospital) did not give us an answer. I do not understand how the hospital can be so adamant that the rape did not happen there and yet they have no medical records that show this because I believe the child was not even examined while she was there.”

The aunt claimed when she reported the case to the hospital, she was told by the ward matron that it was “very busy and the rape could have not happened there”.

“The hospital must not even dare and tell us they do not know what happened. The examining doctor has the nappies which had the white fluid from the child for DNA (testing), so they can deal with this matter accordingly using CCTV footage or something,” the aunt said.

“Without that report, as it stands, we have nothing written as proof of what the doctor told us, the only proof we have is the pain which we live with every day as we see the pain our child is going through.”

The father of the child, who went to fetch the child from the hospital, said: “I was with the mother of my child when I went to take my child but she waited outside the hospital at the gate due to Covid-19 protocols. They can check the cameras if they think I am lying. I found my child in a bed soiled with oats (cereal) and the soap which they were supposed to use for bathing her was not even touched.

“I believe that when my child went for testing at the hospital she was not properly attended to, as I did not even get any medical report on what she went there for. I asked for the doctor that attended to her, but was told he was busy. When I went to fetch her she was crying the whole time and refused to even have a nappy change.

“It is difficult living with this fact and no one should experience such a pain,” he said, adding that they needed psychological support to know how to deal with the child.

“Sometimes, we also do not know how to best help the child. Ever since the incident happened we have to figure it ourselves how to help her. The damage done to her is too much.

“The child has not received any psychological help or counselling till today (Thursday); however, our hope is the Department of Social Development, whose officials visited us and said social workers will be deployed soon.”

Social development spokesperson Thabiso Hlongwane said the department had already tasked three social workers to assist the family.

“Aside from psychological support for the family, we will also look into food assistance relief and everything that the child and family will need from our side.”

In response to the family’s request for footage, Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital spokesperson Zwide Ndwandwe said due to construction at the hospital that disrupted the functioning of the cameras, there was no camera footage available.

“There are CCTV cameras in all wards, including the one where the child in question slept. The challenge is that there is an ongoing construction work to renovate a number of wards. That has disturbed the functioning of some power lines including the CCTV lines, unfortunately, don’t have any CCTV footage.”