Baby dies at daycare centre
A CHURCH on Sundays, daycare centre during the week, untidy with a leaking roof and no play area or toys – this is the situation facing eight children at Thusanang Day Care Centre in Soshanguve Extension 6.
On Friday, 7-month-old baby Reitumetse Buthelezi died at the centre under mysterious circumstances.
The centre has been operating since 2006, but only registered in 2016 by Johanna Lebang.
She said she noticed Reitumetse’s neck was slumping and he was not playful. She called paramedics and the police, and alerted his family.
“The baby was brought here in the morning. I fed him soft porridge that he came with, and put him to sleep.
“I noticed his neck was slumping and I called his grandmother because I did not have his mother’s phone number. The paramedics and police took time to arrive,” Lebang said.
She said she was told no police vans were available as there had been a cash-in-transit heist nearby.
But Reitumetse’s grandmother, who did not want to be named, wanted to know why Lebang failed to run to their house to alert them to the incident. “She sent a child to ask for Reitumetse’s mom’s phone number. The uncle was there, but she did not tell him what was going on.
“Instead she told other people who are about four streets away that there was trouble at the crèche.”
The grandmother said that when the family arrived at the scene, the baby had already been cleaned and clothed.
“His mother tried to perform CPR on him, and porridge came out of his mouth and nose. I pressed his stomach and chest, and porridge was still coming out of his mouth and nose.”
The grandmother said what hurt her the most was that Reitumetse’s mother collapsed when she saw him. “She is still in disbelief; she was devastated.”
The Lebang and Buthelezi families are neighbours, and the incident has created tension between them.
Lebang said the baby had been in her care for two weeks, but the Buthelezi family said it had been a month.
The family also said Lebang only notified them at about 3pm on the day, yet they were told the incident had occurred at about 1pm.
The family said they were in desperate need of answers, and were awaiting the post-mortem results.
Not In My Name yesterday visited the family and vowed to help them receive justice. Chairperson of the Soshanguve, Garankuwa and Mabopane branch, Kabelo Theoha, said they were not happy with the dire conditions at the daycare centre. She was not convinced the centre was registered, or that it would qualify. “The daycare centre is dirty. The blankets are filthy.”