Cape Town - A baby has died after crying for hours while her teenage mom allegedly went partying.
Little Thulisile, who suffers from asthma, was left on her own in a shack by her 16-year-old mother in the Never-Never informal settlement near Marcus Garvey, Philippi East, on Saturday night.
Neighbours said the baby cried through the night.
The next morning they went to investigate and found the six-month-old all alone and dead on her mother’s bed.
She was wearing nothing but a soiled nappy and a jersey with a towel underneath her.
Neighbour Nonzaliseko, who didn’t want to provide her surname, says she thought Thulisile’s parents were at home because she heard voices.
“But the baby cried even in the middle of the night,” said a shocked Nonzaliseko.
“The next morning, community members went to the house and found the baby alone on the bed... she had already died.”
Nonzaliseko said they called the police and then went looking for the young mother and found her with friends at a nearby shebeen.
The baby’s father, Zuko Mandlakhe, 28, said he left their home on Saturday afternoon to work on an overnight contract job.
When neighbours called him the next morning to say his child had died, he rushed back home.
The distraught dad said his young girlfriend often left their child alone.
Zuko added: “My girlfriend did not even care to register the child at Home Affairs for the birth certificate.
“She would leave the child alone and go drinking the whole night with friends.
“Many times when I came from work I would find the child alone or being taken care of by neighbours.
“She was a sickly child, she had asthma.”
Neighbours complained of how the teen had neglected her baby from the day she was born.
Angry Nonzaliseko said: “The mother spends too much time with friends [and not with] her baby.
“We tried to convince her to hand the infant to social workers but she refused.”
The dad said that the teen mom’s family came to fetch her on Sunday morning.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said the cause of little Thulisile’s death is being investigated.
“An inquest docket has been opened and no arrest has been made,” Van Wyk said.
Sihle Ngobese, spokesperson for Social Development MEC Albert Fritz, said that they have been made aware of the matter and have launched an investigation.
Daily Voice