Pretoria - A Grade 2 learner from Mamelodi east has survived having her throat slit, allegedly by her mother’s boyfriend.
According to residents, the 8-year-old’s screaming caught the attention of her grandmother and neighbours, who came to her rescue.
Her father, who declined to be named because he wanted to protect the girl’s identity, said he received a call from her mother, who was at Mamelodi Day Hospital and crying hysterically.
“She told me that my daughter had been attacked with a knife and was critical in hospital. I rushed to the hospital and on arrival I found my daughter on a stretcher, and she could not talk.
“She had this big wound around her neck, one could clearly see that they had slit her throat.”
He said he did not know what had happened until later.
“All the focus was on my daughter; it was later on when I met with the family that I got the full story,” he said.
A 31-year-old man from Section A in Mamelodi East was arrested and made his first appearance at the Mamelodi Magistrate’s Court, facing a charge of attempted murder.
According to the police, the man and the mother are in a relationship. “It is alleged that on April 24 the couple had gone to a funeral where an argument broke out between them,” police said.
“The following day, while the mother had gone to a nearby car wash, the accused went to a house where she stayed to try to work things out.”
He found the girl with her grandmother. It is alleged that the accused took a butcher’s knife he found in the kitchen and slit the child’s throat.
“The mother of the victim heard the screams of her mother and rushed home.”
The accused was arrested after he handed himself over at the Hammanskraal police station. He will apply for bail on Thursday.
The victim’s father called the stabbing a heartless crime. “My daughter did nothing wrong; you cannot slit the throat of an 8-year-old because you had a disagreement with the mother.
“That is pure evil and that is what angers me. Maybe I should have done more to protect my daughter.”
He said he had not slept since the day of the attack, and he had been working tirelessly to find information that would help get his daughter justice.
He said both his children were traumatised by the incident.
“One is in hospital fighting for her life. My 5-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night and cries.”
Pretoria News