Three suspects, including a mother, have been arrested after a viral video surfaced showing her encouraging her three-year-old child to light and smoke from what appears to be a drug-laced glass pipe.
According to police, the trio, aged between 28 and 36, will be charged with child abuse and are expected to appear in the Johannesburg regional court on Thursday.
In the video, the boy is seen being urged to light the pipe and take several puffs. He proceeds to light it and inhales twice.
Police spokesperson Brig Brenda Muridili said members of the Johannesburg family violence and child abuse unit (FCS), led by commander Lt-Col Marema Mogale, responded at about midnight.
This was after receiving a call from the Sophiatown police station about the child, who was brought to the police station by Johannesburg metro police and the grandmother.
Muridili said the mother and two men were detained after being brought to the police station by metro police.
“The three-year-old boy was taken to hospital for medical attention and then taken to a place of safety,” she said.
“The FCS in Gauteng has 22 units strategically located in the province servicing 146 police stations. There are at least 66 detectives on standby from FCS after hours to attend to cases related to their mandate.”
TimesLIVE
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