Six children aged 11, 10, 6, 3, 18 months and five months old were rescued in Rustenburg on 2/9/2020 from a dilapidated and unsafe house. Their parents are known drug addicts and lived in horrendous circumstances. When the team arrived, both parents were intoxicated and tested positive for Methamphetamines, Opioids as well as Dagga.
The house had no food for the children. The mother used the two bigger children to beg in the streets, introduced them to narcotics (both smoke dagga) and they are known arsonists. The children had not bathed in quite some time and food given to the family during lockdown was sold by them to feed their drug habits.
The team noticed the following:
The children were dirty and had not bathed for some time.
The children’s hair was lice infested.
The house was disgustingly dirty and foul smelling.
The kitchen had food particles as well as filth against the cupboards, on the floor and pots and pans.
Human feces were smeared against the bathroom wall.
The toilet seat contained human feces on the seat which were not cleaned.
The bath was filthy and not used. It contained a smaller baby bath that was also extremely filthy.
The bathroom was in total, disgustingly filthy.
Piles of clothes were strewn throughout the house.
Four children had to sleep on one double bed with dirty and smelly linen which have not been washed in months. A huge pile of clothes was lying in their room on the floor and the pile contained warm clothes which they were not wearing. The two boys (10 and 11) shared the bed with the girls (6 and 3). The infants slept with their parent on another bed which was also extremely dirty and foul smelling.
The window above the bed in the room where the children had to sleep was broken and open. The room was extremely cold and dark.
The infant (18-month-old) had to crawl on the dirty floor.
The other infant was left, unattended on the double bed right next to the door with the ice-cold wind blowing on her.
Even the smaller children kept on begging for money.
The FCS Unit removed the children.
Criminal cases were opened against the parents and the children are still in a place of safety.
Some of the photographs of the house.
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