KEY POINTS
- A Durban crèche, Honey Bunch Day Care, is closing after a two-year-old girl suffered severe brain injuries from an unattended fall off a balcony, captured on CCTV.
- Parents allege the crèche gave inconsistent accounts of the incident, while authorities investigate potential violations of the Child Care Act.
- The traumatized family is demanding accountability, citing broken trust and safety failures, as the community raises broader concerns over daycare regulations.
A Durban crèche, Honey Bunch Day Care, will officially shut its doors this Friday following a devastating incident in which a two-year-old girl, Aariya Sewnarain, suffered severe brain injuries after allegedly falling from a balcony while unattended.
The incident, captured on CCTV footage, has triggered an investigation into potential violations of the Child Care Act and left parents demanding answers.
The daycare, a well-known establishment in Chatsworth, south of Durban, informed parents via a WhatsApp group that it would be closing due to “unforeseen circumstances”. The message read: “Regretfully, with much sadness and a very heavy heart I have to officially close Honey Bunch Day Care as of March 28 at 5pm due to unforeseen circumstances. The decrease in number of children attending crèche is not feasible to keep it open.”
However, parents and authorities suspect the closure is directly linked to the ongoing fallout from Aariya’s accident, which left her with an extradural hematoma—a dangerous accumulation of blood between the skull and brain membrane.
A mother’s anguish
Shivana Sewnarain, Aariya’s mother, recounted the harrowing ordeal to newsmen, describing how her daughter’s injuries were initially downplayed by the crèche staff. “As I was on the way to fetch my baby from crèche, I get a call from the school principal notifying me Aariya had had an accident at school and I should come fetch her,” she said. “When I asked how it happened, I was told she was playing outside with the other children and she fell. I asked the principal about her injuries. I was just told there was blood.”
According to Sowetanlive, upon arrival, Shivana was horrified to find her daughter bleeding profusely, struggling to stay conscious, and vomiting. Medical tests later confirmed severe head trauma, requiring emergency brain surgery.
The parents’ distress deepened as the crèche’s account of events changed multiple times. Initially, staff claimed Aariya fell on concrete while playing, but later admitted she had wandered unattended upstairs after a teacher left to break up a fight between other children.
“When asked how the incident occurred, I was first told my baby was playing outside with the children and she fell on the concrete, but still there was no proper indication on how she fell or the details of the injury,” Shivana said. “Later, the teacher said she had gone back inside and up the stairs. This wasn’t mentioned to me in the first instance.”
