Pretoria - A lawyer and his former domestic worker are taking each other on in court this week after he recently was given temporary custody of her 11-month-old twins because she allegedly drank heavily and neglected the babies.
The lawyer, Hendrik Christoffel Reeders, 50, of Garsfontein, Pretoria, and his daughter, Jeanne Danelle, 21, a final-year student, obtained an urgent ruling in Pretoria High Court for the temporary care of the baby girls.
They got the ruling without the children's mother's knowledge.
The court then asked the family advocate to urgently investigate the babies' circumstances.
Reeders and Jeanne eventually wanted full parental rights and responsibilities for the babies, subject to their mother's right to have contact with them, under supervision.
The babies' mother, who works for a restaurant in Rietfontein, Pretoria, said in an affidavit that the Reeders' allegations against her were blatant lies.
Came back with diarrhoea
She wasn't a drunk and did not smoke more than three cigarettes a day.
She said: "Like many South Africans I have to get by with what I have and I believe that any objective investigation will show that I care for the twins properly.
Reeders said in an affidavit that his unmarried domestic worker and her babies had lived on his property.
He had supplied food, clothing, medical care, toys, educational materials and safety equipment for the babies.
The domestic worker and the twins went to Thabazimbi in December last year.
The babies came back with severe sunburn, mosquito bites and diarrhoea.
One of the babies became a "permanent resident" in his home.
The domestic worker began to "socialise" heavily with other domestic workers on the lawn in front of his house.
The domestic worker and the babies left his house on March 15.
The next day, the domestic worker said to Jeanne that she didn't want to work for them anymore and that she had never wanted the children.
Jeanne heard from her again on March 20. The woman said the babies didn't have any milk formula or clothes and that she wanted to come home.
The mother and her babies were then fetched in Villieria in the city. The children had been "traumatised, underfed and were extremely tired".
Reeders said the domestic worker had disappeared this year for 3½ weeks, leaving the babies behind with him, without asking about their welfare.
The mother asked the court to reject the Reeders' application.
She said that when she had been working for the Reeders, she had spent an average of R400 to R500 on the babies' needs.
She had given money to Reeders and Jeanne to buy items. They had helped her "from time to time".
Denied she was often absent
Jeanne had always "favoured" one of the babies.
The mother claimed to have taken care of her children properly. She had heard that their teething had been the cause of the children's diarrhoea.
She denied she was often absent from work or from her children.
The woman said Jeanne had told her on March 16 that she had been fired.
