Eerstehoek, Mpumalanga | Wednesday
MPUMALANGA police are investigating a case of child abuse after it was reported that an 11-year-old boy had been tied to a tree on a daily basis for the past five years.
Captain Sibongile Nkosi said police opened a case docket after The Star newspaper reported that the boy’s mother, Sophie Motha, tied the 11-year-old to an amarula tree day after day at their Ekulindeni home.
She said police were currently taking statements from all those involved.
Earlier provincial social services department spokesman Mohau Ramodike told Sapa that the boy, Benele, was to remain in hospital for two weeks to undergo mental observation.
He would be taken to the Embhuleni Hospital where he would receive medical attention and undergo a series of tests to determine his mental stability.
The mother reportedly claimed doctors told her the boy had a problem with veins in his head.
It was reported that the boy was violent and often ”ate his own faeces when no one was watching”.
His mother said her other children were afraid of Benele and ”he used to hit them”.
”It is child abuse. It is negligence at its best and it cannot be tolerated,” Ramodike said.
”This (Benele’s case) is all news to us. We did not know anything about this until a newspaper confronted us. No one reported it, not even to the local police,” he said.
Meanwhile the United Democratic Movement Women’s Organisation (Udemwo) on Tuesday said the mother had ”looked after her son as best she could”.
”Since there are no specialised schools in the area, Benele’s mother, at wits end, utilised the only solution available to her… she tied her son to a tree to keep him from harm and to keep him from harming others –and she will have to pay the price,” Udemwo representative Khosi Mncedane said. -Sapa