Pretoria - A church on Sundays, daycare centre during the week, untidy with a leaking roof and no play area or toys – this is the situation facing eight children at Thusanang Day Care Centre in Soshanguve Extension 6.
On Friday, 7-month-old Reitumetse Buthelezi died at the daycare centre under strange circumstances.
The centre had been operating since 2006, but was only registered in 2016 by its owner, Johanna Lebang.
Lebang said she noticed Reitumetse’s neck was slumping and he was not playful. She called the paramedics and police, and alerted his family.
“The baby was brought here in the morning. I fed him soft porridge that he came with, and then I put him to sleep,” she said.
“I noticed his neck was slumping and I called his grandmother because I did not have his mother’s phone number. The paramedics and police took time to arrive”
Lebang said she was told there were no police vans available to assist as there had been a cash-in-transit heist nearby.
However, Reitumetse’s grandmother, who did not want to give her name, said she wanted to know why Lebang failed to run to their house to alert them to the incident.
“She sent a child to ask for Reitumetse’s mom’s phone number. The uncle was there, but she did not tell him what was going on.
“Instead she told other people who are about four streets away that there was trouble at the crèche.”
The woman said that when the family arrived at the scene, the baby had already been cleaned and clothed.
“We were surprised about why she cleaned the baby up and clothed him, because that is the duty of the family.
“When we arrived, his mother tried to perform CPR on him, and that is when porridge came out of his mouth and nose.
“I pressed his stomach and chest… porridge was still coming out of his mouth and nose. We then cleaned him up some more."
The grandmother said that what hurt her the most was that Reitumetse’s mother collapsed when she saw him.
“She is still in disbelief even today; she was devastated.”
The Lebang and Buthelezi families are neighbours and the incident has created tension between them.
Lebang said the baby had been in her care for two weeks; the Buthelezi family said it had been a month.
The family also said Lebang only notified them at about 3pm on the day, yet they were told the incident had occurred at about 1pm.
The family said they were in desperate need of answers, and were awaiting the post-mortem results.
Not In My Name yesterday visited the family and vowed to help them receive justice.
The chairperson of the Soshanguve, Ga-Rankuwa and Mabopane branch, Kabelo Theoha, said they were not happy with the dire conditions at the daycare centre.
She said she was not convinced that the centre was registered, adding that it did not qualify to be.
“We went there to check the premises of the daycare centre and it is dirty, not good for children.
“The blankets they sleep with are filthy. It is a house, and when we got there the children had been placed on a blanket next to a stove.
“The children could get hurt if one of them decided to play in the kitchen or with the stove; it is not safe for the children to be there.”
Theoha said they were also waiting for the post-mortem results.
A case pertaining to the death has not been opened with the police.
Pretoria News