Johannesburg - In the dead of night, Mama Anna Ntuli and the 10 other house mothers joined hands in prayer for the poisoned children clinging to them.
“Please God, save these children and give us the strength to look after them,” they recited together.
It was raining heavily on Monday night when officials from the Department of Social Development called Ntuli to the front gate of the SOS Children’s Village in Mamelodi.
“They asked me to please take some children for the night,” she explains.
Ntuli, a housemother and the mothers’ representative here, expected a handful. Instead, she found four cars packed with babies, toddlers and teenagers, some wearing their pajamas and slippers. She was overwhelmed.
“It was a commotion. I just saw kids,” she laughs. “I called the mothers from the 10 houses in the village to come to the boardroom. Together, we prayed. Some mothers took groups of three and four children and found spare beds.”
The children – including 20 babies and toddlers – had been rushed to the village from the Malerato Centre for Hope orphanage after their lunch was allegedly poisoned last week by employee Evelyn Mthembu in an apparent dispute with the orphanage, and rushed to hospital with diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration.
Ntuli and her team spent the night awake, borrowing baby clothes and nappies and trying to calm the babies and help them feel safe, loved and cared for.
“Some babies only settled down after being fed, changed and safely held in a mother’s arms before falling asleep.”
The village did not usually take in so many infants, and launched an immediate appeal for help. The response was overwhelming.
“We’re child-care workers,” said Ntuli. “Somehow, you manage.”
The following day they took the children for check ups at the local clinic, where a baby was admitted for dehydration.
Of the 26 children, nine will remain with SOS Children’s Villages Mamelodi, while the other children have been moved to the Legae Children’s Home, Desmond Tutu Children’s Home and Jabulani Centre.
Mthembu has been charged with assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and officials have shut down the orphanage for now.
Ntuli is shocked by the poisoning incident.
“We had a good relationship with Mareletong. This is not about them. It’s about one of their workers. It’s so horrible what has happened. If I’m angry with you, I will find a way to hurt you, not through children. Children smile at you and they don’t even know you.”
The children were in good hands, she said. - Saturday Star