A South Coast mother has accused the child advocacy group Operation Bobbi Bear and a policewoman of illegally removing her five-year-old daughter from her care.
The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identify of the child, brought an urgent application in the Durban High Court yesterday against the child’s father, Bobbi Bear, Bobbi Bear founder Jackie Branfield, Warrant Officer Anita Human, Child Welfare Services and a Durban magi-strate, asking that a court order placing her daughter in a safe-care facility be set aside and that she be returned to her.
Judge Isaac Madondo granted the request after the respondents said they did not oppose the application.
The mother claimed that her daughter had reported to her on February 6 that she had been sexually assaulted by a family friend.
The woman said she took her daughter to Kingsway Hospital to be examined.
Branfield arrived at the hospital saying she had been informed about the incident by hospital staff, and told her that her child had to be taken to a government hospital to be examined by a district surgeon.
The child was taken to Bobbi Bear’s premises and then eManzimtoti police directed that she be taken back to Kingsway Hospital, where she was examined several hours later.
Earlier in the day the woman had visited the mother of the man who allegedly assaulted her daughter, and got into an argument with her.
Breakdown
The woman said Human had arrested her after she had an emotional breakdown at the hospital and threatened to sue hospital staff for failing to give her child adequate care.
She was charged with several offences, including assaulting the mother of the alleged rapist, resisting arrest, threatening a police officer, breaching the peace, and defeating the ends of justice.
She was detained at the eManzimtoti police station and released on a warning on February 10 to find that an order had been granted the day before by the Durban Family Court, placing her daughter in a safe-care facility.
She said the court proceedings had been instituted on the strength of an affidavit filed by Human.
“I verily believe that Human, in concert with Bran-field and Bobbi Bear, mani-pulated the situation so that I remained in police custody while these proceedings were instituted, so as to prevent me from opposing this application.”
In her affidavit, Human said the woman had been extremely agitated, was “talking in circles” and could not explain what had happened to her daughter.
“My daughter is extremely unhappy in the care of Bobbi Bear and/or Branfield. She misses me as well as her extended family and she pines for the father.
“I have no doubt that she misses her school and the situation that she now finds herself in causes severe hardship to her personally,” the woman said.
Branfield declined to comment on the case yesterday, but said her organisation had been thanked by the child’s father for the work it had done.
The case was adjourned to March 26.
