A distraught couple has told of how they found their baby dead, seemingly for a while, at a day care centre in Oberholzer, Carletonville, on the West Rand.
Baby Atlegang was just 10 months old and his parents Mpho Botlhokwane, 23, and his partner Kgopoco Sengke, 25, found him unresponsive in bed at the Pooh Bear day care centre on Tuesday.
The couple said they dropped off their bubbly baby at the centre after 7am before heading to work on the day.
It was his eighth day there. The parents said they went to pick him up just after 3pm but they were shown the bed he was lying on, cold and unresponsive with black substance covering his face.
Sengke said: “Usually, the caregiver would bring the child to us as we drive in but this time I was told to come in and shown the cot bed.
“When I got there, my son had pillows on him and he was covered in two blankets, a towel wrapped his body and one other towel covered his face.
“His hands and feet were so cold and he was unresponsive. He also had black substance all over his face and some of it came out of his nose. I was in a frenzy. I asked if they had beaten my child to death.”
The panicking mother quickly rushed out to call her partner who had been waiting in the car.
With the hope that their little boy would be revived, the father ran into the centre to perform CPR on the infant.
“As I was doing mouth-to-mouth, the black substance kept foaming out. I had to keep spitting it out, I asked them what they had fed him and the response we got was that he had not eaten all day,” Botlhokwane said.
“When we tried to call the ambulance, the owner of the centre insisted to contact a paramedic friend of hers who arrived within two minutes. He had no uniform on and he was driving a private car.”
He said the man then took the baby to hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
“The doctor told us that he had been dead for some time. I knew he was telling the truth because my boy was cold when we found him,” said Botlhokwane.
He said the only answers given to the family was that the child had been fine when he was put to bed two hours before the parents arrived.
He questioned how the child could have been left to sleep for two hours unattended.
“It seemed as though they made the discovery when we arrived because the owner of the centre assisted me to perform CPR. If they had been checking up on the child during his two-hour nap, they would have seen any form of distress.
“I also asked why they had placed all those blankets, towels and pillows on top on my son, they told me that that is how they usually put him to bed.”
The parents said they want the truth.
Botlhokwane said the postmortem would only be conducted on Friday.
“It’s unusual that they say he had not eaten anything all day, our boy had a very healthy appetite. And if he really was struggling to eat, what is the reason we were not notified as his parents.”
It is believed the centre is a mother and daughter-run business that cares for about five children aged seven months to 11 months.
Sowetan visited the centre on Wilhelmiena Street and found locked gates.
Outside the yard were children playing on a swing.
When we contacted owner Elsabe Mynhardt, she refused to come out of the house and said: “I have no comment. There is an investigation under way so I have nothing to say to you.”
Carletonville police spokesperson Warrant Officer Peter Masooa said police have opened an inquest docket.
“Investigation is continuing to find the cause of death. Information will be made available once the investigation is complete,” he said.
