Pretoria - A judge has come to the aid of a 12-year-old girl who is “slipping into the murky world” of alcohol and snuff due to her behavioural problems.
The girl was kicked out of school and authorities simply washed their hands off her.
Thanks to the Centre of Child Law at the University of Pretoria, a Free State judge has now compelled various state departments, including Education and Social Development departments, to urgently readmit the girl to a special school and see to it that her health and mental issues are taken care of.
Judge Mpina Mathebula said, in the opening to his judgment, that the court would always come to the aid of the vulnerable where their welfare and life was under threat.
“The situation of the child is in flux and cannot be shifted to the back burner,” he said.
The child, only identified as R, came to the attention of the Centre for Child Law in 2018.
The court commented that she has been left to endure with barely any support from the care, protection and education systems.
The judge said she is undoubtedly a vulnerable child in need of protection and care.
She has been diagnosed with alcohol foetal disorder syndrome, she has mental and behavioural disorders, and she is now addicted to substances.
She has been sexually abused, witnessed how her father slit her mother’s throat with a knife, and was dumped back at the “violent” home of her grandmother after the school she had attended for a short while said they could not cope with her.
Advocate Hasina Cassim, the child’s curator, told the court that R was in desperate need of help and schooling to give her a chance in life.
It had been argued by the special school that they would only receive her once her behavioural difficulties and addictions were dealt with.
The judge rejected this argument in the strongest terms.
He said that education was an integral part to a child’s development and upliftment.
It was ordered that R be placed in a place of safety within 14 days and that a rehabilitation plan be formulated to treat her addiction.
She must then be placed in a suitable youth care facility and a special school was earmarked to take her in.
Pretoria News