Pretoria - Screaming his lungs out, the terrified 10-month-old child crawls rapidly across the room with his caretaker in hot in pursuit.
Other children look on as the caretaker forces a ball into the hands of the child, who continues to cry uncontrollably, pausing when the ball rolls away.
But apparently this is momentary relief for the child as the caretaker picks it up again and forces it on the child again.
It is not entirely clear what images inscribed on the ball terrorises the toddler so much.
The 28-second video was recorded at Kletterkousies Speel Groep daycare in Rietondale.
The footage shows the caretaker relentlessly putting the child into contact with the ball while laughing all the time, irrespective of the toddler’s terrified screams.
At one point the minder pulls the toddler by the arm as he crawls away, and she laughs at his reaction.
The video was sent to the Pretoria News by the toddler’s mother. She cannot be named to protect the child. She has since removed her child from the facility, arguing that her little one had been mistreated by the caretaker for her own personal amusement.
The mother said she had been unhappy with the the daycare centre long before the incident involving her child. “I complained previously about the fact that the children were unsupervised and that the heamaster’s grandchildren ate cookies in front of the other children without sharing with them,” she said.
She said there had been no communication between her and the facility since. Then she started trusting her motherly instincts that something was not right.
She claimed the footage was taken and given to her by one of the staff members at the daycare centre. Her son had been showing behavioural problems since the incident, she said.
“He vomits every night, goes to bed later than usual and wakes up at least four times each night crying.”
The child had been going to the daycare since last year November.
“I cannot leave him in the hands of someone who gets joy out of his pain. And who knows what else are they doing to him, or other children for that matter?”
The mother said she approached the Gauteng Department of Education for intervention. She was referred to Social Development, after being told that Education had no mandate over daycare centres.
Social Development, meanwhile, committed to visit the facility for the purpose of conducting an investigation on the matter.
Head of the daycare centre Rika van der Berg initially refused to comment and referred enquiries to her lawyer.
In a statement issued by her lawyer, Van der Berg said the video had in fact been taken to show the mother that her son was showing anxiety symptoms.
“The mother was previously confronted about the child’s conduct and the anxiety he showed, but she did not take it seriously,” she said.
Van der Berg, however, confirmed the child was mistreated. “The handling of the child is under investigation and the daycare centre will give its full co-operation. We take the situation in a serious light. Depending on the findings, we will take steps against any employee of the centre found to be responsible.”
Meanwhile, the child’s mother was upset when informed that the school accused her of not acting on the report of her son’s behaviour. She denied that such a conversation ever took place.
“I only found out about the incident two weeks after it happened. If the video was taken to show my child’s behaviour, why was the caretaker laughing when it was taken?” she asked.
“I have a message book for the child, and nowhere did they write he had a behaviour problem.”
Pretoria News