Snethanthla

Snethanthla is a young girl of around 9 years old; she had been imprisoned by her paternal grandfather for the last 7 years since her father passed away as a result of AIDS.

 

Local social workers have known about her case for at least 5 years, they have a file at least 10cm thick recording her case history. They have visited the home, met with her grandfather, were fully aware that she has never attended school yet never attempted to remove her from this situation.

 

Snethanthla’s mum lived next door to the grandfather during this time but Snethanthla had been told that her mum was dead. The social workers never once spoke to her mother but were fully aware that she lived next door.

 

Their other neighbour is a local police man, also fully aware of the situation for years but never acting on his knowledge.

 

The grandfather kept vicious dogs to keep everyone away from the house. On occasion Snethanthla would visit her neighbours but only when her grandfather was out. Through her maternal grandmother she was able to visit her mum from time to time in secret.

 

She was not allowed out of the house; she wasn’t allowed to play with other children; she didn’t have books or pencils for colouring in.

 

Snethanthla ran to a neighbour whilst her grandfather was out and ask them to call Isibani saying she knew they would come and get her and help her.

 

We rang the local government social worker who said she was too busy to do anything.

 

We then went to the police who suggested we could go and get Snethanthla; we insisted the police should go and waited at the police station until they sent a car. It took over 40 minutes for them to arrange a car and find the relevant paperwork to give Isibani legal custody of Snethanthla. In the meantime we could only hope that the grandfather wouldn’t return home.

 

The police did get Snethanthla and then asked Isibani to take her as they now didn’t know what to do with her. We met with Snethanthla’s mum the same day who was overjoyed to have her child removed from the grandfather’s house. Snethanthla stayed with an Isibani volunteer for 3 nights and then met with her mum and 2 other brothers and they all took a taxi to Johannesburg together.

 

Despite being very confused about why her grandfather had lied to her about her mother being dead Snethanthla desperately wanted to be with her mother and brothers. They are now reunited as a family staying with Snethanthla’s maternal grandmother.

 

 

Asanda and Thabsile

It recently came to our attention through neighbours that 2 young girls aged around 12 and 14 were being abused by their father. Their mother had died several years ago from AIDS.

 

We spoke to the girls, the elder of which is mildly retarded, and they confirmed the abuse; they were very afraid, they lived with their father at the time.

 

We called the police who told us we must pick up the girls, the father was not at home but was in the neighbourhood somewhere.

 

We went to get the girls and as we were trying to explain to them what would be happening the police turned up (3 cars with full sirens and full of men), the father heard of the commotion and also came home.

 

The police took the father and asked us to take the girls, again they didn’t know what to do with them; no paperwork was ever filled in.

 

The social worker did nothing for 3 days due to a public holiday and being too busy on other cases. The girls continued to stay with Isibani staff.

 

We insisted that the girls be examined by a doctor; they were taken by a male police officer who didn’t explain anything to them about what would be happening.

 

The doctor reported that sexual intercourse had taken place and that the elder of the two had an STD. The doctor didn’t prescribe any medication for the STD, nor did he do a pregnancy test or test for HIV.

 

We reported this progress to the social worker who was still too busy to respond and wouldn’t even accept our report.

 

We obtained treatment for the STD and had pregnancy tests done.

 

The social worker eventually turned up and took the girls without any explanation as to where they were going or what would happen next.

 

The girls are currently being cared for in a place of safety around 50km away; their father has pleaded guilty and is currently in prison awaiting trial. They have still received no counselling and are very confused and want to go back to Winterton, they understand what their father did was wrong and know he is in prison and say they will look after themselves.

 

Isibani have visited the girls but the social worker has not been in touch with the place of safety since dropping them there.