Cape Town - A Mitchells Plain mother says she fears for her teen son, who gangsters threatened to shoot, after he was accused of raping a two-year-old girl she had been looking after.
A spat between the two moms over the past week has led police to probe the alleged rape and arrest the toddler’s mother for intimidation.
The 49-year-old mother of the boy, who cannot be named as he is a minor, says she is forced to hide the 15-year-old after gangsters came to her home over the weekend, threatening to shoot him.
She explains she took in the little girl when she was just three days old as her mother, a self-confessed drug addict, is unable to care for her.
She says both the girl’s parents live in a notorious drug den in the street.
“On Friday, the child went to work with me and she was by me the whole week because she had a tummy bug, dan het hulle mos nie tyd vir hulle kind nie (then they don't have time for their child).
“I bought the child medicine and she was better on Thursday.
“I take her to work with me so that she doesn’t have to skarrel (beg) on the streets with her mommy.
“On Friday, she came to lie on my bed, drank a bottle and fell asleep.
“During that time, my son came out of his room with his backpack and went to his daddy.”
She says the tot’s aunt came to fetch her shortly after midnight and the next day two residents came to her door, accusing her son of rape.
This after the girl’s granny tried to wash her private parts but the child pressed her legs tightly together.
But the boy’s mom says: “I taught her day in and day out that nobody must touch her there, only me.
“Because my worry is, she goes home at night, en daai huis is vol tikkoppe en as hulle minds snap, gaan hulle vir haar rape (Because my worry is, she goes home at night, and the house is full of meth addicts and if they snap, they are going to rape her).
“So when her granny tried to wash her, she closed her legs.”
She says members of two gangs came to her house to shoot her son, but were stopped by neighbours who told them that the toddler’s mother was lying.
The little girl’s mother, however, is adamant that the child was sodomised, and has a letter from police saying the matter is being investigated.
“My hart voel seer because die kind was anally raped (my heart is sore because the child was anally raped)” the woman says.
“This is the letter we received from forensics. My mommy said she took the child to a private doctor where she paid R350.
“There is a case opened and they took statements.
“I feel very disappointed because whenever you ask her who hurt her, she says his name (the teen).”
She also denies her child had a tummy bug.
“She never had diarrhoea, that is maybe how her inner parts got sore because according to the district hospital, she was anally raped.”
She admits that she lives in a drug den by her boyfriend’s family and that they smoke drugs.
And when confirmed she was arrested on Tuesday for intimidation and released on a warning to appear in court.
The Daily Voice attempted to speak to the child’s maternal grandmother on the phone but she refused to comment.
Police spokesperson, Captain FC van Wyk, confirms the matter is being investigated, but at this stage it is not clear if the teen will be charged.