A child minder, Nellie Senwametsi, who was filmed beating children at Ninnies Neurons Nursery School where she was working was on Tuesday sentenced to five years in jail by the Oberholzer Regional Court.
40 year old Senwametsi was found guilty of two counts of common assault and one of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm. Three videos surfaced last year in April in which Senwametsi was seen assaulting children. These videos sparked public outrage, which also led to the Gauteng Department of Social Development to close the nursery.
Magistrate Jan Steyn did not hand down the maximum ten-year sentence. Steyn said Senwametsi had shown remorse and wanted to apologies to the affected families but was prevented by her bail condition. He however declared her fit to work with children. During the trail the defendant complained about people that refused to hire her due to charges she was facing.
The Women and Man Against Child Abuse (WMACA) welcomed the five-year imprisonment sentence. WMACA's Advocate Manager Ngaa Morombodzi, said they welcome the conviction although they expected the court to impose the maximum sentence.
"It was going to be a lesson to other perpetrators out there. But we are content with this sentence we hope it sends a strong message to other people they can stay in prison for more than five years and we would like the justice system to abide by the mandate "
Morombodzi views were echoed by one of the parents who welcomed the sentence. I expected a maximum sentence of ten years." My son was affected psychologically. Following the incident, he was behaving weird and currently he is attending pyscho-social sessions with the Teddy Bear Clinic ".
"We would like the law to take this matter serious because many children are suffering in the hands of psychopaths. At the end the children suffer psychologically, and some parents fail to understand why kids are scared to go to creche "she said.
Although people came in numbers, they were not allowed to enter the court room due to social distancing regulation.
During the court appearance one of the witnesses who also asked to remain anonymous said the children were even placed in the dog cage and given hot sauce for them not to talk to their parents when they come to fetch them.
The department has welcomed the sentencing and hopes it serves as deterrent to those that commits such crimes.