Shock as four-year-old accused of molesting toddler at Pretoria day-care centre

The department of social development in Gauteng is investigating an incident in which a three-year-old girl was allegedly molested by a four-year-old boy in a day-care centre run by a Christian faith-based NGO in Mabopane‚ north of Pretoria.

Department spokesperson‚ Mbangwa Xaba‚ said they had sent a team of social workers to get to the bottom of the incident‚ which has left a 40-year-old single mother distraught.

“We are in a state of disbelief. We have dispatched a team of social workers to assess ourselves the matter‚ ensure that both children receive therapy and assess the (day-care centre)‚” he said.

Xaba said the team would also look into both families and invesitgate the environment in which the children were raised.

Zandile (not her real name) said on August 7 she collected her daughter from the nearby day-care centre as usual but noticed that she was in pain‚ unable to walk upright and clutching her groin area.

“She was weak‚ had a temperature‚ so I tried to put her on my back but she screamed in pain‚ unable to open her legs ... my heart skipped a beat. I immediately rushed her to clinic‚” she said.

Zandile‚ who is separated from the father of her four children‚ said her worst fears were confirmed by the nurse who examined her daughter - she had been brutally molested.

“Her private part was lacerated‚ her hymen was gone‚ she had been penetrated …on the way to the clinic‚ I had asked her several times who hurt her and she repeatedly said it was (her 4-year-old class mate) but was unable to say how‚” she said.

Zandile said she was referred to Odi District Hospital for a thorough medical check-up and the x-rays revealed more horror - her daughter’s womb was swollen.

She blamed the daycare centre for the horror‚ saying they were negligent and on many occasions she had arrived to find children unattended‚ with gates left open.

“They are negligent‚ gates are not locked‚ sometimes children are left on their own‚” she said.

But the centre manager insisted that the incident could not have happened at the care centre as children were under constant supervision of at least three child minders.

“The mother reported the matter to the school and we have escalated it to the police and social workers. It is also in our own interest to know the facts‚ what happened but we are sure that this could not have happened here‚” she said.

The mother reported the matter to local police but was told police could not be involved as this happened between children.