A teen believed to be 16 years old allegedly gave birth and dumped her baby in an abandoned pit latrine in the Maphumulo area within Ilembe District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
IPSS Search and Rescue spokesperson Dylan Meyrick said on Thursday members of IPSS alongside uMhlali SAPS K9 Search and Rescue responded to the area after receiving reports of a newborn that had been dumped in a pit latrine.
“Reports from the scene indicate that a 16-year-old female allegedly concealed the birth of a baby and disposed of it in a 2m deep abandoned pit latrine in a neighbour’s yard after placing it in a plastic packet,” he said.
Meyrick said the packet containing the newborn’s body was successfully retrieved from the pit latrine.
He said the deceased baby was handed over to members of Maphumulo SAPS and will form part of an investigation.
“Once it was confirmed that the newborn was in the packet, it was immediately handed over to SAPS and gender was not confirmed by rescuers on scene,” he added.
Meyrick said that the 16-year-old mother was taken into custody.
“Maphumulo police are investigating a case of concealment of birth following an incident in which a new-born baby was found dead on 4 January 2024 at Masiwela Area, KwaMaphumulo. It is alleged that the body of the baby was dumped inside a pit latrine wrapped with plastic.”
Last year, IOL reported that a newborn baby had been rescued after she was found concealed in a plastic bag, and dumped on a sports field at Mbuzini, in Mpumalanga while in a separate incident a baby was stuffed into a maize meal bag and abandoned on railway tracks in Belfast
In a previous report, Open Arms SA, a local organisation that helps with orphaned babies, appealed to women not to dump their newborn babies.
They appealed to expectant mothers to seek advice on where they can leave their babies, if they did not want to keep them.
“There are so many homes that offer assistance. Here at Open Arms SA, we have a baby safe where mothers can drop off their babies without feeling ashamed,” said Open Arms SA’s Youandi Gilain.
The Mercury