Durban - The community of Chatsworth, a social worker and teachers at a local school were all slated as being complicit in the death of the child who came to be known as Baby X.
The 3-year-old died in 2014 after suffering horrific abuse at the hands of her mother and grandmother.
She may not be named to protect the identities of siblings who were also abused.
The grandmother died in prison while awaiting trial, leaving her daughter to face trial alone.
In sentencing the mother to 20 years’ imprisonment for murder on Thursday, Durban High Court Judge Mohini Moodley lamented the lack of action taken by those who had been aware the children were being abused.
Moodley lashed out at the negligence of a social worker assigned to the family.
“The signs of abuse were clearly visible. She was a textbook case of abuse and deliberate neglect, which the social worker failed to observe or deliberately ignored,” said Moodley.
The judge said Baby X’s older sibling had made teachers at his school aware that he was being assaulted at home, but there was no follow-up by school authorities.
“In my view this is unacceptable. Had the abuse been investigated and referred to the police or social welfare authorities, the tragic outcome may have been pre-empted. This failure begs the question of just how many other children seek assistance and are failed similarly by teachers while in their care,” said Moodley.
The court found that the 35-year-old mother had beaten and starved Baby X, burnt her with cigarettes, put chilli powder in her nappy, tied her to the bed at night and assaulted her with a high-heeled shoe.
She was convicted on 17 charges including murder, assault and sexual assault, and making the children beg on the streets, in September.
Senior State advocate Cheryl Naidu had argued that the court should not minimise the serious offences of which the mother had been convicted by ordering the sentences for the individual crimes to run concurrently, or by taking them together for the purposes of sentence.
Naidu had pointed out that the children would bear mental scars and had been placed at risk.
However, Judge Moodley said it was the court’s responsibility to ensure that the cumulative effect of the sentences imposed was not unduly harsh or so severe that the real prospect of rehabilitation was destroyed.
Baby X’s older siblings had testified during the trial about their unhappiness at being made to beg.
Moodley said this was, sadly, not an unusual phenomenon.
“Every day as one drives on the roads of Durban, at practically every robot is an adult who sends a child or children to beg from motorists, thereby placing their lives at risk from the traffic and even worse, abduction,” she said.
Moodley said a defenceless and totally dependent young child had died as a result of the violence perpetrated on her by her mother.
She said Baby X child was deprived of her constitutionally-entrenched right to life, and basic needs such as nutrition and care, by her mother and grandmother.
The judge said statistics indicated that 2600 children had been murdered in South Africa since 2016, and 99% of children had witnessed or been subjected to violence.
The mother’s lawyer, advocate Murray Pitman, had submitted that although she was 34, she functioned at the mental age of a 16- to 17-year-old, according to a neurological assessment.
Judge Moodley, however, said she was satisfied from the mother’s ability to express herself and to comprehend and process the evidence, and give appropriate instructions to her counsel, that she did not have sub-normal intelligence.
Chatsworth community leader Rocky Naidu expressed disappointment at the failure by those who knew of the abuse to intervene on the children’s behalf.
Naidu, deputy chairman of the Bayview Community Policing Forum, said the incident was an eye-opener for the Chatsworth community.
“Everyone in the community has to ensure that such things are not repeated. By not doing anything, the community failed the children,” he said.