Pietermaritzburg - The terminally-ill child whose jailed father was granted permission to see him by a High Court, died in a Pietermaritzburg Hospital on Tuesday.
The child’s grandmother, Pushpam Govindsamy, who successfully applied to the High Court last year for her son, Jaiseelan Govindsamy, to visit the child in hospital, said that the family were devastated by the loss.
“He is with God and his mother now,” she said.
Thirteen-year-old Dante-Lee died in the paediatric critical care unit in Grey’s Hospital.
The child, who was breathing on a ventilator, suffered from Leigh’s disease, a neurometabolic disease that affects the central nervous system.
Govindsamy is serving 15 years in Pietermaritzburg New Prison for murdering his wife, Anthea, by stabbing her 19 times at Howick Falls in 2009 in the presence of Dante-Lee and his younger brother.
Govindsamy visited the child twice in December after a ruling by Judge Jacqueline Henriques.
A relative who spoke to Govindsamy said that he had been shattered by news of his son’s death.
“He won’t even be able to come to his own child’s funeral. He is completely devastated.”
Daily News