Family lives alone for 20 yrs

2004-02-17 22:39

Tom de Wet

Theunissen - Cut off from the rest of the world, with only veld and animals for company, a husband and wife and their four children have spent the past 20 years all alone on a remote Free State farm.

The four children - aged 26, 22, 18 and 14 - have never had contact with the outside world and their behaviour is so animalistic they can't even communicate in an understandable language. One of them walks on all fours, almost like a monkey.

An assortment of healthcare experts have been ordered by the Free State department of health to assess the woman and her children, who are now in the care of the state.

The team has also been ordered to make suggestions about the family's future.

If people came to the farm, the children took to the hills and returned only once the visitors had left.

None of them can speak a recognisable language

One of the boys walks on all fours just like a monkey and neither the mother nor her children are able to speak a recognisable language.

They communicate with each other and with the father in sign language and noises.

Home is a corrugated-iron shack, but the oldest son has never slept indoors with the others. He has always slept in the open.

Home to the mother and her children for now is Bongani Hospital in Welkom and, according to Ouma Tsopo, the Free State's MEC for health, a decision on the family's future will be made once they have been assessed by the team of doctors.

She said the move had been extremely traumatic for the children, but that everything would be done to reunite them as a family.

Tsietsie Mapisa, chairperson of the community policing forum in Theunissen, heard about the family and sought help for them. He said the forum was looking for a home for them.

He feels, however, that the family needs to remain in Oranje Hospital in Bloemfontein for a few months to learn social skills. He said if this was not done they would run away.

Mapisa said a district health nurse first heard about the family. He went to investigate and called in the welfare department and the police.

Bathed and given clothes

He said authorities had had to wait until dark and the children were in the shack before they could move the family. They gave the children bread and chips to calm them down.

They were taken to Theunissen where they were bathed and given clothes.

Sello Majola, the children's father, is the only person who had contact with the outside world. He is also the only one who can speak a language.

He said his children were not born this way, but became so because they did not "follow the same religious path as the Majola tribe".

Read our follow-up article: Father: I failed my children.

- Volksblad