Screengrab from a video showing a caregiver at a Carletonville creche, Nellie Senwametsi, repeatedly slapping a small child, 3 April 2019.
The owner of a crèche in Carletonville, at the centre of a child abuse case, has been arrested and appeared in court on Friday.
Janine Edwards appeared separately from co-accused Nellie Sinwametsi at the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court.
News24 reported that Senwametsi was arrested on March 26 after several videos showing what appears to be the same employee abusing children at the crèche went viral on social media.
In one of the videos, a young girl is forced to clean up after she vomited. The child is slapped on her buttocks. In another video, a toddler is slapped for what appears to be a refusal to sleep, News24 reported.
Both accused have been released on R3, 000 bail. Edwards is expected back at the court on August 30, while Sinwametsi’s case has been escalated to the regional court.
WATCH: Crèche employee repeatedly slaps toddler for vomiting
“Sinwametsi’s case has been moved upon request by the SPP (Senior Public Prosecutor) to the regional court in accordance with section 175 of the CPA, and she will appear again on 29 August,” Women & Men Against Child Abuse said in a statement on Friday.
WMACA have reiterated its call for police to arrest the videographer as well.
“Although we are satisfied that the crèche owner has finally been arrested and will be appearing in court, we maintain that there were three perpetrators in accordance with Section 110 of the Children’s Amendment Act (which makes provision for the compelled immediate reporting of child abuse) and as such we hope that the videographer will also have been arrested by the time we return to court,” the organisation says in a statement.
“The silent protest by mothers and the community alike outside the Oberholzer Magistrate’s Court has demonstrated the serious light in which this terrible violation of toddlers at the hands of the people tasked to protect them should be viewed.”
The crèche was shut down in April after it was found to be operating with an expired licence.
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