CRIME

Carletonville creche horror: Alleged abuser back in court in May

Published

4 Apr 2019

04/04/2019

A mother who instinctively removed her daughter from a Carletonville crèche when she felt something was amiss was outraged to see a video of the child being thrown down and shouted at.

Three videos have emerged of toddlers at the crèche in Carletonville, on the West Rand, being shouted at, slapped, shoved and forced to clean up their own vomit.

In one of the videos, the woman’s little girl can be seen being thrown and shoved into a mattress.

The caregiver heard saying that she did not know what to do anymore, was attempting to force the crying child to sleep.

“She doesn’t know what she wants,” the caregiver is heard saying in Setswana.

“Sleep,” she yells at the crying toddler.

The child buries her face in a pillow.

“I don’t know what she wants,” the woman says to a person filming the incident.

“A person is being tried and abused [by this child],” the caregiver is heard saying.

The child attempts to get up but is grabbed by the collar, thrown back onto the mattress and shoved onto the pillow.
“Sleep,” she shouts repeatedly.

Another child plays next to the crying toddler, but the caregiver pays no attention to him.

“I will beat you,” she is heard saying again, pointing at the little girl, who is hysterical.

Asked how she felt about the minute-long footage, the mother said she was “furious”. Her voice broke, as she choked back tears.
“I received the video two days ago. I have no idea when it happened, but I was always concerned because she would come home with bruises on her legs and she would cry a lot when we dropped her off,” said the woman, who asked not to be named to protect the identity of her child.

“When I reported this to the principal, she said my daughter is an emotional person and I am overreacting,” the woman said.

Her daughter was 17 months old when she was first enrolled at the Carletonville crèche. She attended the facility for seven months.

“I took her out of the crèche two months ago. It was because of instinct. Every mom has that instinct. I couldn’t force her to go back there because she was not the same child anymore.

“She would sit in a corner and cry the entire time,” the mother said.

She said after receiving the video she confronted the school’s principal. “The minute I received it, I drove to the school to confront her and all she said was that the teacher had since been arrested because of the videos,” the mother said.

Carletonville police spokesperson Warrant Officer Peter Masooa said the woman appeared in court on March 28 after a fellow teacher opened a case of assault on a minor against her.

Masooa said the woman was remanded in custody while investigations continue.

He said the woman would make her second court appearance soon.

The mother said she wanted answers.

“When I raised my concerns before, she said it was impossible [for this to have happened] because she was there the entire time. How could she have not known?”

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi instructed his staff to find the Carletonville crèche so he could attend to the matter, but his office said matters of early childhood development centres were dealt with by the Department of Social Development and not his office.TimesLive

Related Topics:Carletonville Creche South Africa

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CRIME

Zimbabwe Opens One-Month Amnesty for Illegal Firearms

Police say anyone holding unlicensed or illegally acquired guns can hand them in without prosecution until 12 November, with checks to follow.

Published

20 Oct 2026

20/10/2026

AIZ News Editor

Zimbabweans holding unlicensed or illegally acquired firearms have until 12 November to hand them in to police without facing questioning or prosecution, under an amnesty announced by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP).

According to the police statement, issued on Monday 19 October by spokesperson Paul Nyathi, the amnesty began on 12 October and covers both individuals and institutions. It extends to firearms and ammunition that are unlicensed, smuggled or otherwise illegally obtained. Anyone who surrenders a weapon at their nearest police station will be given an official safe custody receipt.

Police said the amnesty is being run under the Southern African Development Community protocol on the control of firearms, ammunition and related materials.

The ZRP linked poorly secured and unregistered weapons to serious crime, naming armed robbery and murder, though it did not publish figures. It said some licensed owners have failed to renew their certificates or update their records. It also pointed to guns that stay in private hands after a company closes, a gun club membership lapses, or a licence holder dies.

Police also accused some licensed dealers and gun clubs of keeping unclaimed firearms they had been holding for safekeeping, which they said breaches the Firearms Act.

The statement carries a warning. Once the amnesty ends on 12 November, police said they will carry out physical checks and verification exercises aimed at people suspected of holding illegal firearms. Licensed owners were told to update their records promptly.

The police statement has been carried by ZimLive and NewZimbabwe. Neither reported statistics on how many illegal firearms are believed to be in circulation.

Sources: Zimbabwe Republic Police statement as reported by ZimLive and NewZimbabwe.com.

CRIME

Murder trial of Zimbabwean scientist Dr Fortune Gomo set for January 2028

A 21-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the racially aggravated murder of Dr Fortune Gomo in Dundee. The trial is due to start in January 2028.

Published

13 Oct 2026

13/10/2026

AIZ News Editor

A trial date has been set in the case of Dr Fortune Gomo, the Zimbabwean scientist killed in Dundee, Scotland, in July last year.

A 21-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to murdering Dr Gomo, 39, and to a separate charge of having a knife in a public place, according to The Scotsman and Voice Online. Prosecutors allege she was repeatedly struck on the body with a knife in Dundee on 5 July 2025. They say the attack was aggravated by prejudice relating to race, nationality or ethnicity. The accused is not named here because the two outlets spell his name differently.

Both outlets report that the trial is due to begin in January 2028 at the High Court in Dundee.

Dr Gomo was an environmental and water resources scientist who had recently started work with Scottish Water. Both outlets say she held a PhD from the University of Dundee. The Scotsman reports she had studied in both Scotland and Zimbabwe, graduating from the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe; it cites social media for her academic record.

The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and no evidence has yet been tested in court.

Sources: The Scotsman; Voice Online.

CRIME

Ndodana Tshuma pleads guilty to gun charges in Johannesburg, clearing way for UK extradition

The British-Zimbabwean man wanted over the deaths of his wife and two daughters in Bedfordshire has admitted firearms and immigration offences in a South African court. He has not entered a plea to the murder charges.

Published

10 Sep 2026

10/09/2026

AIZ News Editor

Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma has pleaded guilty in a Johannesburg court to illegally possessing a firearm and ammunition, and to an immigration offence — a step that clears the way for South Africa to extradite him to Britain.

Tshuma, described by the Associated Press as a British citizen of Zimbabwean heritage, is wanted by police in the United Kingdom over the deaths of his wife and their two daughters at the family home in Bedfordshire in July. Prosecutors in Britain say he will face three counts of murder.

The Associated Press reports that the guilty pleas formed part of a plea deal with South African prosecutors, and that South African authorities have said they will move to extradite him once his local court case is concluded. Eyewitness News, whose report was carried by NewZimbabwe.com, said a plea and sentence agreement between Tshuma and the State was before the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court.

He was arrested in Johannesburg in July after fleeing the UK, and was found in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

It is worth being precise about what Tshuma has and has not admitted. His guilty pleas relate only to the South African firearms and immigration charges. He has not entered a plea to the murder charges, and his lawyer, Chrispen Machingura, has indicated it is unlikely to become public soon how his client intends to plead in Britain, according to Eyewitness News.

The case has been followed closely by Zimbabwean communities in Britain and South Africa since the summer. AllInZimbabwe reported last month that the extradition matter had been rolled over to September in Johannesburg.

Sources: Associated Press, via ZimLive; Eyewitness News, via NewZimbabwe.com.