By Clayton Barnes
Child rights groups and the parents of the Rawsonville toddler who was suffocated to death have called for a ban on television programmes promoting violence.
This comes after a two-year-old Rumarco Arries was kicked, punched, thrown to the ground and suffocated with a belt, allegedly by a 14-year-old imitating wrestling.
The teenager, being held in a place of safety, is believed to have been a fan of wrestling TV programme WWE Smackdown, and performed wrestling moves on Rumarco at their home on Deo Gloria Farm in Rawsonville on April 1.
Little Rumarco's battered body was found under a heap of blankets in the house.
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Police are still investigating how Rumarco died, but the boy's father, Riaan Williams, says he believed the teen had been wrestling with his son.
Speaking to Weekend Argus, Williams said the 14-year-old "loved watching wrestling".
He said the teen collected Rumarco every morning to take him to his day mother on a neighbouring farm.
But it is believed the teenager took Rumarco back to their farmhouse after his parents had gone to work and allegedly suffocated him before kicking him and throwing him to the ground three times.
"We know this because the 14-year-old's sister, who is six, is a witness in the case and told us how Rumarco was thrown to the ground like wrestlers did in WWE Smackdown," said Williams, who works on the farm.
"We are angry and very upset. If wrestling is not banned from TV, more children are going to get killed. These children here have nothing else to do; all they watch is wrestling every Wednesday and Sunday."
Williams said he knew of a few children who had had their arms and legs broken trying to imitate WWE wrestlers.
Rumarco was buried in a graveyard near their home on Sunday.
His mother, Moneen Arries, 22, a farm worker in De Doorns, said she could still not believe her baby was gone.
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