SPECIAL REPORT: Child Abuse in Durban
In this first episode of a Special Report on child abuse in Durban, Terence Pillay chats to the Phoenix mother caught beating up her child while her boyfriend filmed it.
Listen to the first episode of this special edition of #GBU (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) as the Phoenix mom speaks out below, or read the details under the podcast.
A shocking 2-minute video emerged recently showing a Phoenix mother repeatedly kicking and hitting her daughter, while her boyfriend recorded it and gave instructions. The video outraged the local community who demanded action from the police or they were going to take matters into their own hands.
The mother in the video went into hiding after she was arrested and given bail. Her boyfriend asked for his bail to be revoked after a community, seemingly tired of the lack of action against child abuse in Phoenix where the incident took place, set fire to his car.
For this first time since the incident, the mother speaks about what happened that day. We cannot name her in the interest of protecting the child’s identity. The child suffered severe injuries to her body including damage to her head and legs.
A recent UCT and World Vision study has revealed that South Africa’s child protection services are in crisis. In KZN and the Eastern Cape, the worst provinces for abuse, only 19% of cases are referred to the police by Social Services.
Phoenix and surrounds South of Durban have the highest number of child abuse cases in KZN, and the 2nd highest in South Africa.
After the video emerged on social media, Alvin Brijlal, the head of VOICE, the Victim Outreach Center in Phoenix laid the initial charges against the mother and her boy friend
The mother she alleges that she hit she child only because she was instructed to by her abusive boyfriend who also threatened to kill her.
According to VOICE, The Crisis Center at the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital sees about 130 to 150 cases of abuse a month from the Phoenix, Verulam, and Inanda precinct. Of this, Alvin says more than a third involve children and the numbers are steadily increasing.
You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1and tweet him your thoughts.