Durban – A mother is expected before the KwaDukuza Magistrate’s Court on Thursday after she allegedly drowned her toddler in a bucket full of water because she was “difficult and troubling her”.
Police spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo said that on Tuesday, Umhlali police received a complaint of a four-year-old toddler that died in one of the homes in Ballito, north of Durban.
Ngcobo said the police then went to the said address.
“Upon arrival the police met the mother of the child who stated that her child was difficult and troubling her and she decided to drown the child in a bucket full of water until she stopped moving,” Ngcobo said.
She said both the child’s hands were tied with tape.
“The little girl was certified dead at the scene.”
Ngcobo said a case of murder was opened for investigation by Umhlali SAPS.
“The 45-year-old woman was placed under arrest and was charged with murder.
“She is expected to appear before the KwaDukuza Magistrates Court tomorrow (Thursday),” Ngcobo said.
Childline KZN acting director Adeshini Naicker said: “This is shocking and sad especially in light of all the awareness and education we create around child abuse, femicide and infanticide.”
Isiaiah 54 Children's Sanctuary founder Glynnis Dauth said the incident was a hard one but it seemed premeditated.
Dauth questioned the mother’s support system - family, friends and the father of the child.
She also questioned whether the mother had previous mental conditions.
Dauth said dealing with problematic children was difficult and if the woman was a single mom, even more so.
“The child cannot defend itself. How was the child treated before this happened, we will never know,” Dauth said.
“No one has the right to take someone's life and most especially a child.”
Child Rights activist Joan van Niekerk described it as an “extremely sad situation when this occurs”.
She said not excusing the mother but what needed to be done was to find out the circumstances surrounding the mother's behaviour.
“Unacceptable but if we're going to prevent more deaths of children like this, we need to understand what led up to the behaviour and how we can prevent it in the future.”
“Of course, there needs to be an appropriate sentence, if she's not mentally ill and if she is found guilty,” Van Niekerk said.
“One does wonder too if we don't need to be doing a lot more for parents who are experiencing difficulty with their parenting.”
Van Niekerk said South Africa banned corporal punishment but not much was done in the way of saying to parents, children must be disciplined but this is the appropriate way to discipline if you need help and these were the organisations you can go to.
“I think this contributes very much to what we are seeing at the moment, with no guidance as to alternatives to corporal punishment, and indeed, we see a lot of resistance to the ban on corporal punishment.”
She said that another thing was that parents did not know who to turn to when they reached their tether.
She said Childline had applied for funding to several places for a parent's line because parents were telling us they needed a lot more help in their parenting than they were getting at that time but they never managed to get that off the ground.
“Of course, parents are very welcome to phone Childline and ask for assistance. We really need to say to parents ‘helping you is helping your child’.”
“The line is for children but that doesn't mean parents can’t phone us if they need help with their parenting because this benefits their child.”
Daily News