Toddlers locked in room for days

ABUSE: HOTEL STAFF FORCE OPEN DOOR TO FREE TWO KIDS

Mom, apparently a sex worker, jailed on charges of public indecency.

In a shocking case of child abuse, two children were left locked in a room for almost five days before social workers intervened and took them to a place of safety. The children, aged two and four, were spotted last Sunday when they were standing on a windowsill in a room at the back of Cloud’s End Hotel, outside Louis Trichardt, Limpopo.

A reporter, Bernard Chiguvare, noticed them when trying to investigate where the sounds of crying children were coming from. Chiguvare was renting a room in the same hotel.

“I heard faint sounds of children crying the previous day and I was wondering why the mother was not attending to them,” said Chiguvare.

The next morning, he spotted the children and alerted the hotel caretaker. They gave food and water to the toddlers through an open window.

Incidentally, Chiguvare was at the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court last Friday morning to follow up on some cases. While there, he noticed a group of sex workers appearing in Court B on charges of public indecency. The mother of the toddlers turned out to be one of the accused.

“They were all informed that they either had to pay a R1 000 fine or spend a month in jail,” said Chiguvare.

The woman was apparently taken to prison without informing the court that she had two children waiting for her. She left her room at Cloud’s End last Thursday.

On Monday, the management at Cloud’s End Hotel forced open the door of the room to free the toddlers. The matter was reported to the police and the department of social development. On Tuesday, when still nothing had been done to take the children to a place of safety, more phone calls were made to the various authorities. On Tuesday afternoon, social workers visited the hotel and collect the toddlers. – GroundUp, co-published with Limpopo Mirror