Pretoria: All Zodwa Twala could think about was the safety of the children in her care at a crèche in Ga-Rankuwa when three armed assailants brazenly stormed in this week.
Their pot of gold was the R40 000 that had been paid by parents, at R260 per child, for an educational excursion to Aventura in Bela Bela, Limpopo. The trip was scheduled for Thursday.
That was not all.
Along with the money, the intruders also demanded cellphones and laptops, which they snatched during the armed robbery on Monday.
But Twala said she was not prepared to let them touch the children or allow them to witness gun-wielding men ransacking the premises with their teacher in tow.
She bravely stood in front of the men – possibly risking her own life – and pleaded with them not to harm the children.
The children were waiting to be fetched by their parents at the end of a long day at the crèche.
The school, Kiddies Ark in Zone 6, caters for the needs of 120 children, but only 30 were present at the time of the attack. The children are aged between three and six years.
“The three men were very calm and polite. At first we thought they were parents who had come to enquire about the crèche.
“However, one of them lifted his shirt and showed us a gun that he was carrying. It was then that we realised trouble had struck,” Twala told the Pretoria News on Tuesday.
Twala and some colleagues were sitting at the entrance of Kiddies Ark day care centre when the armed men ambushed them.
“They knew what they wanted; they knew there was money here because they walked in and specifically asked to see our supervisor, the person responsible for the crèche’s finances,” Twala said.
The children were confused but fortunately were not aware of what was happening, she said.
The robbers locked the staff in one room, while the children were locked in a separate room. “I am just happy that they did not hurt any of the kids. We were terrified, but had to be brave so that the children wouldn’t be afraid,” she said.
However, the traumatic experience did not end there.
“When they came into the office I thought it was a joke. It didn’t seem real until one of them cocked a gun and pointed it at me,” said Sibongile Ratshivhombela, daughter of the crèche owner and human resources officer for the facility.
“They said ‘where’s the money?’ I then showed them where it was on the table and they took it. “They searched through my bag and took my cellphone and my laptop before running off on to the streets,” she said.
Kiddies Ark director Odo Ratshivhombela said he was happy that no one was harmed during the ordeal.
The robbery appeared to have been orchestrated by someone who knew the details of the crèche and how it operated, he said.
“Whoever was behind this was aware that we had money on the premises, because we had been planning this trip for quite some time,” he said.
“They even came in looking for the supervisor, who they know is responsible for the money here.”
It has been a traumatic experience for his staff, he said, but he lauded them for remaining calm and ensuring the children were safe.
“The staff members are heroes. They were composed during the robbery, but broke down at a later stage because they didn’t want the kids to be scared,” he said.
Asked why there was such a large sum of money on the premises, Ratshivhombela said the majority of the parents had paid for their children on Monday.
“The trip costs each child R260 for transport and entrance fees, along with other expenses,” he said.
Despite this setback, Ratshivhombela said they would continue with the excursion.
“We’re using money from our savings because we can’t disappoint the children and burden their parents with additional expenses,” he said.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Matthews Nkoadi said a case of robbery was being investigated and no arrests had been made. – Pretoria News