Grandma given three years for abusing grandchild
A 56-year-old Mozambican woman, who stays in Comet, has been sent to prison for abusing her nine-year-old grandchild.
This is after she pleaded guilty to burning the child.
The self-confessed child abuser, Aida Mhlongo, was sentenced in the Boksburg Magistrates Court, on June 19.
She has been sentenced to three years in jail, with one year suspended for five years, on condition that she is not convicted of a similar offence.
Mhlongo and her 40-year-old daughter (the biological mother of the victim) were arrested in May and both charged with grievous bodily harm, after they heated up bricks before forcing the child to sit on them.
They allegedly burned the boy’s buttocks, hand and hips with the heated bricks as a punishment, after accusing him of stealing R300 in cash.
Mhlongo admitted to burning her grandchild, but the co-accused pleaded not guilty to the crime.
She has been remanded in custody and her trial will resume on July 1.
A man, said to be a third accomplice in the assault, is still at large.
Residents of Comet expressed a variety of feelings about the court’s decision.
Some feel that the sentence is appropriate and others feel that it is lenient, but they all welcome the prison sentence.
They add that the punishment is sending out a strong message to other possible child abusers, and will help to reduce crime in their community.
During the trial, a handful of angry women from the community mounted a demonstration outside the Boksburg Magistrates’ Court, demanding that the two alleged child abusers be convicted.
The boy has been removed from the mother’s care, and lives with his father.
– @FanieBoksburg
