An ouma, harassed over a chocolate her grandson broke at a Cape Flats Pick n Pay store says the incident has left her kleinkind with nightmares.
Images of tearful Iris Beukes, 59, clutching eight-year-old Tylan on the floor of the Town Centre store went viral last week.
The family has since accepted an apology from Pick n Pay, a R500 grocery voucher and counselling.
Iris tells the Weekend Argus she is still “jittery and fearful” after the incident.
She had been shopping at Pick n Pay last Saturday when Tylan broke a wrapped 150g Cadbury chocolate slab into pieces.
A security guard and floor manager then allegedly demanded she pay for the broken chocolate.
“I told them I didn’t have enough money for the chocolate but they threatened me with jail,” Iris said.
The diabetic ouma then collapsed from the shock.
“When I awoke [Tylan] was holding on to me crying because he was scared that I would be taken to jail and he would be taken away,” says the Woodstock factory worker.
“He wakes up at night crying and shaking asking me if the police will come and arrest me.
Iris confirmed she had accepted an apology and grocery voucher from Pick n Pay.
“They came to my work place and offered me counselling, and a R500 voucher along with the apology.
“But I now wonder if R500 is worth the entire trauma they caused us. I accepted it because I want this whole thing to be over,” she said.
Store manager Ishmail Mosagee confirmed the retailer approached the family, but had not been able to meet Iris in person.
Mosagee also claimed the picture that went viral on social media had been “staged”.
“The woman was screaming, fell to the floor on her own and someone put the boy on her lap,” he said.