According to research, 70% of young children who have a parent in jail develop emotional problems, the Wynberg Regional Court heard from a psychiatrist on Wednesday.
Rosa Bredenkamp was testifying before Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney in support of Najwa Petersen’s second bail application.
Petersen and three co-accused face trial in the Cape High Court for the murder of Petersen’s husband, renowned entertainer Taliep.
The current proceedings are Petersen’s second bail bid — her first attempt was in July, when her application was dismissed.
Her appeal to the high court was also dismissed, and in the current proceedings she has launched a second bail bid based on new facts.
Bredenkamp told the court she was approached to do a psycho-socio analysis of Petersen and her eight-year-old daughter.
Concerning the daughter, Bredenkamp said she had focused on the emotional trauma she had suffered resulting from the death of her father, as well as from her mother’s arrest for the murder of her father, and the girl’s psychiatric history for the purposes of the bail application.
The court has ruled that no negative evidence about the girl that may be harmful to her may be published.
Bredenkamp told the court: ”This is not merely about the young girl — it’s about the entire family system.”
She said it was of utmost importance to consider the child’s best interests and the ability of the family to attend to her emotional and intellectual requirements.
She said young children who experience trauma such as the loss of one or both parents felt isolated.
She said the death of a parent was extremely traumatic for a child, especially if the child had witnessed the death.
Bredenkamp told the court: ”If such a child is not given correct information about the death, it would result in confusion and complications later in life.”
Reassurance
Meanwhile, Peterson’s daughter told Bredenkamp that her mother did not kill her father.
Bredenkamp read to the court a transcript of her discussions with the girl, calling them ”Zainub’s story”.
Zainub told her she was eight years old and that her father and mother were ”the most important people in my life”.
She got on with ”everyone”, but other important people in her life were her teacher, her aunts, uncles and cousins.
”I sleep with my aunt since they took my mother away,” she told Bredenkamp.
Talking about the night her father died, the girl said she was asleep at the time.
”They held a gun to my daddy’s head, then they shot him. Mommy told me daddy was dead. I burst out crying, and mommy cried also,” she told Bredenkamp.
”The next day was daddy’s funeral, and there were lots of people. My daddy did not look angry. It looked as if he was asleep.”
The eight-year-old said both she and her mother cried.
”Mommy is in jail, they blame her for killing daddy. She did not kill daddy.”
Zainub told the psychiatrist that she loved and missed her mother and wanted her to come home.
”She said she’s coming home in September, but she did not. My grandpa died on September 30, in a car smash.
”Children at school ask me about daddy, and if mommy’s in jail
”When I ask mommy what she misses most, she says sleeping in daddy’s arms.”
Bredenkamp told the court the girl considered the prison authorities ”very rude” for not allowing her to stay in prison with her mother
She said the girl needed closeness and to be constantly reassured.
Zainub was weepy, battled to sleep at night and was anxious about when her mother would return home, Bredenkamp testified. — Sapa