ELIM – A 2-year-old girl from Mufeba village near Elim was horrifically maimed while she was in the care of her aunt, and is slowly being nursed back to health in the Mankweng Hospital’s intensive care unit.
Katlego Khoza’s mother, Veronica, is blind. She said when her aunt, Ivy Mulaudzi, requested permission at the beginning of September to take Katlego to her home in Maila village near Louis Trichardt, so that she could have the company of her children, she agreed.
“Our agreement was that she would bring Katlego home after a month. She never brought her back. I phoned her at the beginning of October to find out when Katlego would return. She said she would bring her at the end of October.
“Just before the end of October, I phoned her again, and we arranged to meet at the mall in Elim, where my daughter would be returned to me. But she never arrived.
“Shortly after this, I was shocked when a home-based caregiver from Maila village contacted me and told me my daughter had sustained serious injuries,” the heartbroken mother said. She said she and her brother, Collin, took a taxi to Maila village where they found Katlego with serious wounds to her head and leg.
“The wounds looked like flesh had been cut off her. The wound on her leg was stuffed with muti that was black in colour, and banana peels. I don’t know why.
“I cried to find my little Katlego with these wounds. The wound on her head was so deep that her skull was visible and there were worms crawling in her wound.
She said when she questioned her aunt about what had occurred, her aunt gave three versions of what had happened. “First she said Katlego fell from a woodheap and was hurt. Then she said she fell off some bricks that were stacked up. Then she said she had seen a snake and when she wanted to kill it with a brick, she missed and hit Katlego on the head by mistake. She further said Katlego was recovering slowly in hospital, but would need to have skin grafts to heal completely.
Tshitale police station, Const Irene Radzilani said Mulaudzi was arrested and appeared before the Tshitale magistrate’s court on December 4 last year in connection with a case of attempted murder. “The case was remanded to February 19 for a formal bail application and the suspect remains in custody,” Radzilani said.
