The five-year-old girl was found by members of Masakhane CPF after they were tipped off about the abuse. Initially they said the 35 year-old woman who is staying with her own child as well, denied that she was staying with the child. On further investigation the child was found in a half dug toilet pit outside the one room house in Masakhane, she was covered with empty maize meal bags.
“After we questioned her she admitted that she was staying with the child and showed us were she had hidden her. We found her in the pit covered with empty maize meal bags and she looked very scared and she was clearly traumatised. We then called the police who arrested her,” said a member of Masakhane CPF.
The mother of the child said she could not believe that her uncle’s wife could do that to her child.
She said the child started staying with the suspect from early January while her uncle was away working in the Eastern Cape. She is not sure when the abuse started, but it seems it has been happening for a long time. The child’s clothes were found thrown outside the house.
“My child has been abused and it is clear from the wounds all over her body. She was assaulted all over her body and has burn wounds on her face as well. She has wounds on her legs, thighs, buttocks and a swollen back. How can a mother do this to another child? It is clear that my child was treated very badly in that house. I am also traumatised and cannot sleep at night,” said the mother.
The child has been admitted to Middelburg Hospital.
Blinkpan police are investigating a case of child abuse, the suspect appeared in court on Monday, February 16 and the case will be resumed on February 23.
