Newborn’s body found near school

A DOG was found carrying the corpse of a baby girl into the yard of a home in the Unathi Mkefa residential area at 8am last Thursday.

Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) worker Feziwe Mfutwana said a neighbour had seen the dog with the infant in its jaws and had called EPWP workers who were nearby, for help.

Mfutwana said at the time of their arrival the police officers were already on the scene.

“When we saw the baby, we were shocked. It had been bitten on the right shoulder and leg. It is clear that the child was carried for nine months because it was well developed and big. I do not know what would cause a person to commit such an act – whether it is poverty or carrying a man’s baby who they do not know. This is the third incident in Ezibeleni. “About two weeks ago a baby was found with a pair of scissors next to it and last month another was found alive at the tip site.”

ANC Women’s League gender-based violence coordinator in the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality area Bulelwa Mgijima, said the dog returned to a furrow near the Unathi Mkefa Primary School where a plastic bag was found. It appeared that the baby and placenta had been wrapped in it.

Police spokeswoman Captain Namhla Mdleleni said a concealment of birth case had been opened.

Mdleleni called on community members to be concerned if pregnant women returned without their babies.

She said such cases were difficult to solve as DNA from the mother was needed for a match.

Four cases of concealment of birth had been reported so far this year, she said.