There was shock and disbelief at the Parow Regional Court yesterday when two moms from Eureka Estate who were found guilty of allowing gangsters to rape and torture the one’s two-year-old daughter were sentenced to five years in prison.
After being on trial for over two years, the 27-year-old woman, who cannot be named to protect her child’s identity, was found guilty alongside her friend Ursula Paste, 32, after the child was rescued from a drug den in 2019.
The discovery by Debbie van Rensburg, 56, and her son Cisco, 27, sparked an uproar when it was revealed that the little girl had been raped, her genitals burnt, her tiny body bitten and her hair cut.
The mothers were charged with rape, attempted murder, child abuse and assault but were only found guilty on child abuse while the mother faced an additional charge of child neglect.
This was due to no evidence linking them directly to the injuries on the child, who was nicknamed Baby Nadia.
None of the men who abused the child had been arrested as the two women have refused to name them.
On Monday, the mothers asked for a R5000 fine instead of jail time but the Magistrate sentenced Paste to five years in the mang, adding she could be released in just 10 months for good behaviour.
Baby Nadia’s mother was sentenced to five years for child abuse and another five years for child neglect, however the sentences will run concurrently.
An emotional Debbie burst into tears and stormed out of the courtroom saying the justice system had failed Baby Nadia.
“I just started crying and walked out. How can the Magistrate fail a child like this?” she asked.
“I am still traumatised by what I saw and that child will never be the same again.
“How can he say Ursula must get parole after 10 months? That is mos nothing. Ek is baie hartseer, I can’t believe it.”
The frustrated woman says after two years of attending court, she had hoped for a harsher sentence.
“I have been going to court for more than two years on my own with nobody supporting me and so many times I had to borrow money just for taxi fare to get there but I went because I was fighting for justice for this little child.
“Now the Magistrate says they got five years because they are mothers and first-time offenders but who lets that happen to a child?
“They are monsters, not mothers,” she says.