Long wait for justice after daycare drama

A YEAR after a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH) was opened against a King William’s Town daycare centre principal, the grandmother of the then six-year-old boy is still searching for answers.

The creche principal, who cannot be named as she has not appeared in court, is alleged to have bitten the boy to give him “a taste of his own medicine” as he had bitten another boy in class.

Contacted for comment, she said: “It is false. That is my simple statement. I did not bite any child.”

But she will have to face assault charges when she appears at the King William’s Town Magistrate’s Court on December 1.

The grandmother of the child, who cannot be named to protect the identity of her grandson, said she opened the case last November.

The case was referred to mediation in an attempt to settle it out of court, but the grandmother said she made it clear the principal should face the full might of the law.

But, to the grandmother’s frustration police have been dragging their feet in investigating the matter and, when she enquired about the status of the probe, she was sent from pillar to post, she told the Daily Dispatch.

The weeping grandmother said she was shocked when she got home and was shown the teeth marks on the little boy’s arm.

“I called the principal and I could hear [in] her voice that she was excited and was not sorry for what she had [allegedly] done. She told me my grandson had bitten another child in class and that he was a troublemaker.

“But as his grandmother she never told me before the incident that he was a troublemaker because she was always raving about what a good student he was,” she said.

The grandmother said it was only after she told the principal that she would report her alleged actions to the education department and the police that she showed remorse.

King William’s Town police spokeswoman Captain Siphokazi Mawisa said: “The case was investigated and [the] case docket was taken to the senior public prosecutor at King William’s Town Magistrate’s Court for a decision [on] whether to prosecute or not.”

National Prosecuting Authority regional spokesman Tshepon Ndwalaza said after further consultation with the senior state prosecutor the state had now decided to charge the principal with assault.

He said a summons would be issued to her and the matter would be heard on December 1 in the King William’s Town Magistrate’s Court.

He said the delay was due to a lack of state witnesses.—