Eldorado Park Mourns 4-Year-Old Nikita as Parents Face Charges

(The Post News)– Family, community members, and officials laid four-year-old Nikita to rest today in Eldorado Park. Nikita died two weeks ago in hospital from injuries allegedly inflicted by her father.

City of Joburg Council Speaker Margaret Arnolds was among the attendees. Speaking outside the venue, she said gender-based violence is becoming a norm in South Africa. She raised concern over children’s safety, notably in cases where they are being killed and raped by their parents. Additionally, she urged parents and South Africans at large to reflect on whether they are truly a “safe haven” for their children.

Bishop Dulton Adams, a Gauteng legislature member, said social ills and unemployment contribute to child abuse cases. “You cannot look at the death and abuse of our children in isolation. Let the government know that it is the social ills in our communities, the social monsters in our communities, the apartheid spatial system, unemployment, and the marginalization of our women that have brought us here,” said Adams.

Police have arrested both of Nikita’s parents in connection with her death. Adams criticized the narrative that colored mothers are unfit for motherhood. “That is not the identity of our women,” he said.

Nikita’s aunt, speaking at the funeral, pleaded with people to stop judging the child’s mother. “Stop crucifying the mother; she is just a mother,” said the emotional aunt. “It could happen to any of us here, not knowing that the uncle, the father, or whoever is busy molesting the child.”

Prosecutors have charged the father with murder, rape, grievous bodily harm, and child abuse, and they accuse the mother of failing to report the sexual assault.

On Monday, the mother and father appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court. They abandoned their bail application.