Woman held for ‘throwing baby away’

A WOMAN was arrested yesterday just hours after abandoning her baby in a bin bag to be taken by garbage collectors.

Prem Balram, director of security company Reaction Unit SA (Rusa), said Rusa located the mother after making inquiries regarding a woman who was pregnant in the Everest Heights area in Verulam. They received information that a woman living about 100m from where the baby was dumped was seen walking away from the bin bag.

Balram said Rusa members approached the woman, who initially denied having been pregnant. After extensive questioning, she finally admitted concealing her pregnancy because of her children being from two fathers.

“After going into labour this morning she managed to naturally deliver the baby in her bathroom while her 11-yearold son and nine-year-old daughter were at school and her parents were at work.”

Balram said she wrapped the child in a denim garment, placed him in a bin bag and dumped it at the side of the road near her house. She then cleaned her bathroom to conceal the birth.

Her parents said they had no knowledge of the pregnancy.

Balram said the newborn was found around 2.30pm after a scrap-metal collector heard a baby crying.

“The child was examined and found to be free of injury. While examining the baby boy a municipal garbage truck drove past. The occupants were in the process of picking up bin bags left for collection. Had the child not been found in time, he would have been thrown into the back of that truck,” he said.

The baby was transported to Osindisweni Hospital and found to be in good health. The woman will face charges of attempted murder and child abandonment.