Johannesburg - A love triangle dispute has led to the tragic death of a 9-month-old baby who was allegedly attacked because his mother had an affair with a married man.
Baby Nando was allegedly attacked and hit with an object on the head when his mother Phindile Nkabinde, 26, went to a nearby shop.
When she came back, the infant's lifeless body lay in the bed with a gash on his head.
Nkabinde and her boyfriend, who is a Mozambican, are farmworkers in Randfontein, and lived in the farm’s “servant’s quarters” a few metres apart. The boyfriend, who is the biological father of the child, lived with his wife, who is also from Mozambique.
According to a distraught Nkabinde, it all started on Saturday when her boyfriend came to see his son. “I told him the baby was sleeping but he wouldn’t listen to me. He insisted that he wanted to see him. He went into the bedroom where he (the child) was sleeping,” she said.
Nkabinde said while she was chatting to her boyfriend, his angry wife stormed in and attacked her. She said her boyfriend, who is only known as Armando, tried to calm his wife down and they left. After the couple left, Nkabinde quickly locked the door.
But a few minutes later, the woman came back screaming and told Nkabinde to open the door. When she refused, the woman repeatedly hit the door with a stick, trying to break the lock.
“She was very angry. She was shouting and screaming. I could not hear what she was saying because she was speaking in her language, but I know she hated my baby,” said Nkabinde, adding that the woman eventually left.
Nkabinde said she knew the woman did not like seeing them together, but did not think it would make her “kill my son”.
She said she had been going out with her boyfriend for a long time, but they only saw each other at work because his wife was very jealous.
“Every time I went to their house to tell Armando the baby was sick, she used to get very angry. She used to fight with him if he tried to come and see Nando,” Nkabinde said.
She believes the woman gained entry into the house while she was gone. Nkabinde said she realised when she came back that something was wrong, because the door was unlocked. She said a friend rushed to the bedroom to see if the baby was there and found him dead.
“I think she saw when I left the house and went and killed my baby. Nando was sleeping so peacefully. I did not know that it would be the last time I would to see him alive,” Nkabinde said.
“I was shattered when the friend told me my baby was dead. At first I thought he was unconscious and poured some water on him. I was panicking.”
Paramedics told her the child had a gash on his head. “He was just an innocent baby. I’m hurting so much,” she said.
Nkabinde said her boyfriend arrived at her house and told her how sorry he was that his wife had killed their son. “He said he wished she had killed him instead. He pleaded with me not to open a case against her.”
Randfontein police are investigating.
The Star