Baboon attack: Family rejects farmer’s apology
Wildlife farmer David Aadnesgaard has had a hard time trying to reconcile with family members of two children attacked by a baboon at their home.
|||Durban - Richmond wildlife farmer David Aadnesgaard has had a hard time trying to reconcile with family members of two children attacked by a baboon at their home on his farm.
His apologies have been flatly rejected.
Aadnesgaard said he had gone to Edendale Hospital on Wednesday morning to visit Seluleko Xaba, 6, and his cousin Sinethemba Mkhize, 10, but Seluleko’s mother, Khonzeni Xaba, told him over the phone: “I don’t want to talk to you.”
The baboon, which Aadnesgaard killed after it attacked the children, is believed to be among 14 that Durban’s Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife took to his farm in 2013. Crow had collected the animals from various villages, and rehabilitated them before sending them to the farm to be in their natural environment.
Aadnesgaard said on his arrival at the hospital on Wednesday he called Khonzeni informing her that he was there and intended to see the children.
He used someone else’s phone as she had repeatedly refused to answer calls from his number.
“When she answered, I said: Khonzeni, why are you not answering my calls?” She said: “David, I don’t want to talk to you.”
Aadnesgaard said he gave a lift to some members of the Xaba family, and had dropped them off at the hospital.
“At the entrance of the hospital I asked her for permission to visit the children, but she refused. I had to go back.”
However, Khonzeni’s nephew Mthobisi Njilo said Aadnesgaard did not reach the hospital. He said he dropped off the Xaba family members near France, a low-cost housing village on the Richmond road, about 20km from the hospital, on hearing that he would not be allowed to visit the children.
Khonzeni said she refused Aadnesgaard permission to see the children because he only wanted to visit after the incident had received media and government attention.
bongani.hans@inl.co.za
The Mercury