Two year old girl raped at Covid-19 Isolation centre in South Africa

By Adekunle Badmus

A two-year-old girl was allegedly raped while in a Covid-19 isolation ward at the Dr. George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa.

Report says, after the child had been picked up from the hospital,

she appeared to be struggling to walk and investigation by the mother revealed that there had been ‘penetration’.

The toddler’s aunt anonymously and painfully disclosed that the girl was sexually abused while admitted at the hospital.

The hospital reportedly had advised the child’s mother that her daughter needed to be placed on an isolation ward after she developed symptoms of Covid-19.

Provincial Police spokesperson, Brigadier Mathapelo Peters revealed that a rape case has been opened.

The aunt said:

“The mother and child were referred to the George Mukhari Hospital by the KT Motubatse clinic in Soshanguve on June 15.

The nurses at the clinic said since the child was struggling to breathe, she should be taken to George Mukhari Hospital to be tested for coronavirus.

“The hospital called in the evening and told the mother that the child was crying and in pain.

They later called around 11pm and said the child was now sleeping.

The hospital staff called again in the morning and told my sister to come and pick up her child because she had been discharged.

The hospital said the child had tested negative for Covid-19.”

“I saw that there was something wrong with the child. As the mother was changing the nappy, she discovered some white fluid on her private parts

“She initially thought it was medication as the child had been in hospital.

But the following day, that same whitish fluid was still coming out,’ the aunt told local media.

The girl was taken back to the hospital where a nurse reportedly confirmed that there was an indication that the child had been raped at the isolation ward”.

In the last three years in South Africa, 99% of children experienced or witnessed violence, 2,600 children were murdered

– 5% of the total murders – and 41% of all reported rape cases have been of children.