Frustrations due to the loss of jobs and the restrictions of movement imposed by government, aimed to stop the spread of the Corona virus, have resulted in many family relationships being broken, be it between; husband & wife, siblings, parents & children and even between neighbours. Unfortunately, more and more people are reporting domestic violence taking place at homes, where even elderly parents or minor children are being severely beaten up or ‘punished,’ by not being given food or even made to do domestic chores such as cleaning the toilets, which they had not normally done before.
In one of the recent incidents reported to the Laudium Sun, on condition of anonymity, we were told of an elderly couple living in a small Bengal Street home, who offered their son, (together with his wife and two minor children), to move in with them, in June last year, as the son had lost his job due to Covid-19 restrictions and was struggling financially. Now, about a year later, the daughter-in-law, demanded that the elderly parents move into the outbuilding at the back of the house, as she “needed” their room for her children, who she said were growing up. Ironically, the parents had given their much bigger bedroom, to the son and his family when they moved in, and the parents moved into an adjacent much smaller room, for their son’s convenience.
The outbuilding was built by the parents as a means of extra income and had a tenant, as both parents are pensioners and do not work. The parents now have less income, as they were supporting their son and his family, but shockingly, are being dictated to and pushed around by the daughter-in-law, whilst the son, who does not contribute anything financially to the running of the house, remains silent.
In another incident, a Laudium grandmother, Kulsum Mahmood, approached the Laudium Sun for help, claiming that the police refuse to take action against her daughter and step son-in-law for continuously beating up one of her grandchildren. She cried to the Laudium Sun, (due to the sensitivity of this matter and to protect the abused minor, certain information has been removed from the grandmother’s quote, including the gender of the child, “Last Thursday, at around 15:45 in the afternoon, one of my grandchildren, came to me crying and bleeding saying that the step-father, Aslam Khan, had beaten the child. This is not the first time such a complaint has been received by me. I was so hurt, but not surprised. I then took the child to my daughter Layla and her husband Aslam who stay a few streets away from me. I wanted to hear what had happened and why Aslam had beaten the child, so badly. Even if the child is wrong, you cannot hit the child like you are fighting with your adult friends, like you want to kill him. But when I got there, both Aslam and Layla, became aggressive towards me. They wanted to even fight with me, when I went to talk to them in peace. I was told I must never come to them again. To my shock, my own biological daughter has gone to a point of not even caring about me, her own mother. I had no option, so then I went to the police station to report a child abuse case. But, to my shock, when I got there, the police said to me, that they can’t open a case, as the mother and father have the right to discipline their children. I was hurt, and felt betrayed because what do they want? Do they want me to wait until my grandchild is dead before they take action? What kind of police do we have who want people to take the law into their own hands? What about the police always preaching in the Laudium Sun about reporting crime so that we as a community can live in a safer environment? In this country, when you are poor, you are nothing. Your life is meaningless. Anything can be done to you and everything will be as normal as before. I heard later that Aslam accused my grandchild of stealing food in the house, but if they do not give food to the child, what must the child do? The other children are given food, but only this one child is treated very badly. I’m asking the people of Laudium to help me get justice and protect my grandchild. I’m also asking if anyone has any knowledge of the whereabouts of the biological father, Rashid Mohammed, to please contact me through the Laudium Sun office. Rashid was last seen in Chatsworth, Durban. Maybe he can help my grandchild, his own child. I even went to the child welfare. They said they will follow the matter up, but I am still waiting. I have nowhere to go to that is why I came to the Laudium Sun. If the mother does not take care of the child now, the next thing is that the child will go on the wrong path, with drugs and alcohol abuse. I can’t allow that, that is why I am taking care of the child for now, but I am getting old.”
Aslam Khan, the step-father, said (name and gender of child removed from quote), “Firstly, this is a family and private matter. I do not understand why the granny had to go public. I want to say, I did not hit the child, who is always disrespectful in my house, even though I have given the child everything. On Thursday, I only pushed the child away as the child was trying to fight with the mother. But I have had enough of the child that is why I chased the child away, because I might end up doing bad things to the child. The child does not want to clean, or do any work to help in the house, nothing. The child just wants to sit here, so if you are living in this house, you follow the rules of the house.”
