Images of a woman "beating children in nursery" become viral in South Africa

A South African woman was arrested after streaming videos of a person hitting children and forcing them to clean up.

A clip shows a woman screaming at a girl who appears to have vomited before hitting her head.

The film was shot in Johannesburg a year ago but has resurfaced, reports Pumza Fihlani of the BBC.

Local media reports that some parents have withdrawn their children from the nursery since they've seen the viral message.

In addition to hitting the young child, we also see the woman hitting her on the back and asking her repeatedly: "Why are you throwing up, why?"

Twitter users quickly sentenced the woman. One person replied "my heart sank", another wrote, "Wow, you do not understand how much it makes me cry, poor baby."

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Some also asked why the person filming had failed to intervene and stop the beatings.

One of the strongest social media responses came from the Regional Minister of Education, Panyaza Lesufi, who was identified in the video.

"Disgusting !!! I could not even finish watching this!" he writes before tagging his colleagues and adding: "Hunt this manger! I am [on] waiting to jump just get some details. "

The South African Department of Social Development also tweeted about the incident, saying it "condemned the abuse of children" before appealing for more information.

Organizational officials also reportedly visited the school on Thursday to conduct an badessment.

A nursery lawyer told Eyewitness News that the person who had filmed the video had been reported to the child protection services and that the woman in the footage had already been fired.