VIDEO: Second carer arrested for assaulting elderly EL woman
A second suspect has been arrested for allegedly assaulting an elderly East London woman at the Lily Kirchmann complex.
Police said they arrested 19 year-old caregiver Tshibangu Kalonji on July 27, when hidden camera footage allegedly showed him beating 84-year old pensioner Hope Shepherd.
The assault was captured by a camera hidden inside a television in Shepherd’s room.
The latest arrest is separate from the February 3 and 23 assaults on Shepherd allegedly committed by another former Lily Kirchmann caregiver Ncediswa Mkenkcele.
Mkenkcele was first arrested on March 23 for assaulting Shepherd.
Police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi said Kalonji handed himself over to police when management at Lily Kirchmann filed a case of assault against him.
Berea Gardens Retirement Foundation executive director Mike Schulze told the Daily Dispatch yesterday: “Following additional CCTV footage supplied to us by the Shepherd family in early June, we did request SAPS to investigate.
“The incident occurred on January 30 and it involved a relief home carer from Amatola Nursing Agency who was working at Lily Kirchmann.
“We immediately advised the nursing agency of the incident, who in turn reported the matter to Anasa to have the home carer blacklisted among their members.”
Kalonji first appeared in the East London Magistrate’s Court on July 28. The matter was postponed for further investigation and he was released on warning.
Shepherd’s family was only made aware of the arrest on Wednesday, the same day Kalonji made his second court appearance before Magistrate Leon Kemp. His case was postponed to October 7 for further investigation.
Speaking from Johannesburg, Shepherd’s eldest daughter Deanne Guild said the footage implicating Kalonji surfaced in early June when she was studying it to see if they had missed anything.
“I only came across the second assault on my mother beginning of June long after the media had reported on the initial assaults.
“The January 30 incident really broke my heart because my mother was tied in a wheelchair and assaulted twice – in the morning and the afternoon.”
Guild said the alleged assault by Kalonji occurred hours after Mkenkcele allegedly assaulted her mother.
“As a result we also have opened a third charge of assault against (Mkenkcele) because we missed the part where she assaulted my mother at 4.38am on January 30,” Guild said.
“You can see him bringing my mother into the room, he grabs her hair from behind and begins slapping her.
“She was trying to fight – he got hold of a towel and rubbed it across her face, he then slapped her in the face. You can see that he keeps on looking through the door to make sure that he was not seen,” Guild said.
She said the family initially missed the incident because there was a lot of footage to go through.