Durban - Details of the cruel life and death of a 3-year-old will be told by her brother and sister - themselves now only 12 and 9 - when they testify in the Durban High Court this week in the trial of their mother and grandmother, who are accused of their little sister’s murder, and also of physically and sexually assaulting them.
The three had been placed in the care of their grandmother by the Children’s Court after their mother, for financial reasons, wanted to put them up for adoption.
According to the charge sheet, the abuse at the Chatsworth home they all shared went on for years.
Not only were the children forced to beg on the beachfront, but, it is alleged, the boy was hit and burnt with cigarettes and a hot iron by both of them, and his gran burnt his penis with a cigarette.
The elder daughter was also hit with various objects and burnt. She was hit on her vagina with a wooden spoon.
The baby suffered similar assaults and was also allegedly starved. She was tied up in her bed at night with rope.
Her grandmother, it is alleged, used a cigarette to burn her in her pubic area, and also rubbed chillies into her pubic area.
The abuse finally ended in November 2014, when the toddler died and the two women were arrested for her murder.
They are now facing 17 charges, to which they pleaded not guilty when they appeared before Judge Mohini Moodley on Monday.
Although the media has previously named the baby and the accused, it is now legally barred from doing so because it will lead to the identification of the two other children, who will give evidence in camera - and also via CCTV - with the assistance of an intermediary.
Advocate Kelvin Singh, who is representing the State along with advocate Cheryl Naidu, said in his opening address that “Baby X” would be given a voice through evidence about her injuries and evidence of her siblings.
Her brother, in particular, would testify about a “specific act of violence” which caused her death, while her sister would give evidence about several incidents of abuse.
He cautioned that the post-mortem photo album contained “vivid photographs not easy for sensitive digestion”.
He also placed on record that the two women had been assessed and found fit to stand trial.
The women are being represented by different lawyers.
The grandmother has a Legal Aid SA advocate, Theyagaraj Pillay, while the mother, who received a R1 million payout from the Road Accident Fund for a brain injury, is being represented by advocate Murray Pitman.
In a statement read out by Pitman in amplification of her plea, he said his client suffered from a mental defect and had diminished responsibility.
“She was raped by a neighbour at the age of 6. She was raped by her father, a drug addict, at 16. Her mother - her co-accused - was continuously abusive towards her. At 18, she was involved as a pedestrian in an accident in which she suffered severe brain injury.
“She has been a drug user for many years, smoking heroin and sugars on an almost daily basis.”
Regarding the charges, he said she remembered slapping her son once when he was 7 after he called her a bitch. “It was not a heavy slap. She also remembers the older children once playing near the ironing board and knocking it over. The iron touched them. They received minor burns, but did not require medication.”
As for Baby X, she recalled spanking her twice to discipline her for bad behaviour.
The granny said she was a bad granny and admitted she used to tie Baby X to the bed. She admitted pinching her and burning her.
“The injuries on her privates, on her neck and under her arms were caused by me,” she said in statement to a police officer, which was handed into court. “I tied her to the bed because she used to get up and bang the wall and scream.”
She said she only tied her by her right arm so that she could still suck her left thumb.
The first two witnesses, a paramedic and the first policeman on the scene, testified on Monday about how they found Baby X dead on the bed and described some of her injuries, including a swollen hand, a rash, bruising, and what appeared to be blood in her nose.
The trial continues.
The Mercury