BEATINGS HAPPENED "TOO OFTEN" TO BE REPORTED

How many times is "too often"? I can sort of kind of understand someone not reporting that a child was beaten if it was a "once" off - but a child being beaten often, as clearly happened in this case, should have been reported long ago.

In my opinion the whole bloody community should be charged with "aiding and abetting" or "obstuction of justice" or anything else that anyone else can think of! And as for being afraid that the "woman may target them" - good grief! Grow some backbone and be counted as a human being for goodness sake!

This is absolutely disgusting!

February 05 2007 at 10:55AM
By Nwabisa Nofemele

Widespread apathy and fear among community members could lead to a Port Elizabeth woman accused of beating her 12-year-old adopted daughter to death walking free. Her neighbours are not prepared to make a formal statement to police. Despite allegations by several New Brighton residents that the child was regularly beaten by her mother - and that they had heard screams coming from the house hours before she died last Sunday afternoon, neighbours said they did not want to get involved with police because they were scared of being targeted by the woman. They also said they had not gone to the child's aid because "the beatings happened too often".

Although there was general outrage among community members after the child's death, the allegations of abuse were only reported to police on Thursday - four days after the incident - after a community member heard residents talking about the case and felt compelled to report the claims of abuse to police.

Spokesperson Verna Brink said police had been called to the house last Sunday afternoon where the mother, a retired nurse who cannot be named because she has not been arrested or formally charged, told them the child had died "suddenly".

"Four people have come forward since Monday to say that the child did not die of natural causes, but was murdered, but none of those people was prepared to give a formal statement," Brink said. "Everybody complained that the girl had been murdered, but they didn't want to get involved because they had no proof," she said.

"We can't do a postmortem until we have a case number, and we can't open a case unless someone comes forward to give a statement," Brink said. A neighbour said that on the Sunday afternoon the mother had accused the girl of stealing R1 500 from her home. "She took her to a friend's house nearby where she said the girl should point out who she had spent the money with.

The girl did not, and she started beating her there. "They both came back home and she closed the door and beat her up. "I heard the child screaming, but I did not want to get involved this time because it was normal for her to beat up the child. "The neighbour said the girl had eventually become quiet. "Afterwards, I saw the mother leave the house and she came back with a relative.

"After a while, I saw a police van and the car from the mortuary." Another neighbour said the woman had only told her neighbours about three hours after the police had left that her daughter had died. "She said the child had had a stomach ache and had died," she said. "She was always accusing the child of stealing money and she would beat her with a kettle cord. "The child used to have ugly bruises on her body, but she would hide them."

The neighbours claimed that the girl had run away from home repeatedly, but the police would find her and bring her back home. Asked why they did not report the abuse to police, they said they were scared they would be targeted by the woman.

This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Times on February 05, 2007