Babies in hospital after police fire teargas
April 19 2013 at 01:11pm
By NTANDO MAKHUBU
By NTANDO MAKHUBU
Etienne Creux
Two Mabopane babies
were admitted to the Dr George Mukhari Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa after inhaling
teargas thrown at a group of protesters by police. Picture: Etienne Creux
Pretoria - Two Mabopane babies were
admitted to the Dr George Mukhari Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa on Thursday after
inhaling teargas thrown at a group of protesters by police.
The children, aged a month and two
months, were at a creche in Mabopane when they inhaled the teargas. They spent
the night in hospital as a precautionary measure, health officials said.
Metro policemen and members of the
South African Police Services on Thursday threw teargas canisters at a group of
protesters as they ran along a street where the creche is.
Metro Police spokesman Ellias Mahamba
confirmed the use of teargas during the protest in Mabopane’s Section AA and
said: “We were dispersing the crowd, which had become unruly; it is unfortunate
that children were affected.”
Mahamba said teargas blew into an open
window at the creche. “The cops only wanted to disperse the crowds,” he said.
But a mother, whose baby was admitted
to hospital and who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, said the
police had failed to act responsibly.
Speaking from the hospital where her
baby had been put on oxygen, the mother said: “The police chased the group from
the main road and into a street full of homes; surely they knew that there were
people who were not part of the action in that area.”
She asked why the police had decided to
pursue the protesting group as if they had committed crimes. “I cannot accept
that my innocent baby, whose lungs are still very small, will have to spend the
night here,” she said.
A woman who identified herself only as
Phindile was among the hundreds of young protesters who were up at dawn to burn
tyres and blockade main roads into and out of section AA on Thursday morning.
She was also among those who ran into the street in which the creche is, when
the police started advancing towards them, shooting them with rubber bullets.
“The hiss of teargas and a cloud of smoke followed on my heels just as I passed
the creche,” she said.
One room in the house which houses the
creche had open windows. Katie Mnisi, who works at the creche, said confusion
followed the sounds of protesters running and policeman shouting, canisters
falling and fumes wafting into the room.
Children started coughing just before
they bundled all of them into another room, where they locked them up. “The
smaller ones started breathing with difficulty and crying,” she said.
Ambulances arrived soon afterwards and whisked six of the children to a nearby
clinic. Parents were notified of the incident. A mother who works in Rosslyn
told the Pretoria News: “I jumped into a taxi and cried all the way because I
was so frightened of the harm to my boy.”
Her six-year-old son had been taken
home by her brother, but she was not forgiving. “The police acted irresponsibly
and put our kids in danger” she asked.
A nurse at Ga-Rankuwa said the two
babies were going to be observed overnight for to make sure that no
complications arose.
ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za
Pretoria News
