DURBAN - THE Phoenix mother who was caught on camera allegedly beating her child says she was forced to do it.
In an interview with journalist East Coast Radio's Terence Pillay, the mother said she wanted her child back in her care and had no choice but to hit the child as the man would have killed them.
The 25-year-old mother, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the four-year-old girl, was seen in a video allegedly punching and kicking the little girl for an apparent bed-wetting incident.
The video was allegedly filmed by the mother’s 20-year-old boyfriend. In the video, a man can be heard spurring on the abuse of the girl who falls to the ground crying as she is beaten by a woman.
Both the mother and her boyfriend have been charged with attempted murder, and are on bail of R3000 each. Their next court appearance is in August.
She was speaking out for the first time since the video surfaced in March. The mother told Pillay she had been dating her co-accused who she claimed had been obsessive, jealous, and abusive towards both her and her daughter.
“He started booting us and booting her on her legs, punching her on her legs and I was screaming for him. Because I was screaming for him he took me and threw me against the wall. She (daughter) had a blue pants on, and she wet it. He saw that she wet her pants,” the mother said in the interview.
The woman alleged that her boyfriend forced her to hit her child as he threatened to kill them, and she realised after the incident that he had been recording her actions.
“At the end of the day as a mother it hurt me for what I did but I could have not hit her and he could have killed both of us in that house. I regret putting my hands on my child... I saved my child's life at the end of the day,” she said.
The woman said she desperately wanted her child back in her care.
Currently, bail conditions for the pair include that they have no contact with the little girl who is in a place of safety.