West Rand crèche principle charged with negligence
Gauteng authorities have closed Ninnies Neuron Nursery after it emerged that it was operating illegally.
Social Development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza visited the school on Thursday after a video emerged of an employee assaulting a toddler.
The 40-year-old woman - who was arrested a week ago - has appeared in the Oberholzer Court in Carletonville on a charge of assaulting a minor.
The arrest follows a video, widely shared on social media, depicting a crèche employee slapping a toddler repeatedly and forcing her to clean up her vomit.
Mayathula-Khoza says the principal claimed ignorance.
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"She told us her side of the story that she wasn't aware that there was abuse in her early child development space and that, in fact, she only got aware when she got an sms from one of the two of her teachers. This teacher was trying to extort money from her saying: I'm going to expose this video clip if you don't give me money'. So that's her story. She wasn't aware because there are cameras in that particular space."
Mayathula-Khoza says the probe included the crèche’s registration.
"She showed me a certificate who's registration was in 2016, right? She knows very well, she's been told by social workers that she must comply and apply again so that the early childhood development space can be registered.
“So the crèche is illegal, so we had decided as social development to close it down."
She says it is evident that the principal did not care for the children in her facility.
"We told her that you are registered but also you do not care of the little one, parents report that the children are injured and you don't investigate, you don't do anything. She wanted to open up another one elsewhere and we said no, this place is under investigation."
The principle is also under investigation.
"Because if she doesn't have a certificate for the crèche it means she herself is not a qualified ECD practitioner but we are going to check on that tomorrow and we are going to charge her because she has been negligent, she's neglected the children that have been put under her care,” says Mayathula-Khoza.
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