DURBAN: Police are appealing to anyone with information about the parents or relatives of an abandoned baby to come forward.
KZN police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said police found the infant alive in a dustbin at Boscombe Place behind a Durban hotel on July 10 at 10.15pm.
“It is suspected that she was abandoned the day after she was born.
“The Durban Central Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit are investigating a case of child abandonment and are seeking assistance in finding the relatives or parents of the infant.”
Police said anyone with information on the identity or whereabouts of the parents or relatives of the child is requested to contact the investigating officer, Detective Constable Dludla, at 061 375 4876 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111.
In a separate incident, in August, Durban Metro police were alerted to an abandoned newborn at the Durban beachfront.
Metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Parbhoo Sewpersad said a car guard heard a baby crying in the vicinity of a garden and alerted metro cops who were on beach patrol.
“The baby was given a bath, and was changed into new clothes and given formula.”
The baby was thereafter taken to a place of safety.
In September last year, a Newlands mom, who had dumped her newborn baby in a stormwater drain, was sentenced to three years behind bars.
The unemployed 33-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the baby and her two other children, was sentenced in the Ntuzuma Magistrate’s Court.
In her guilty plea, she said she was embarrassed to have had a third child out of wedlock.
In another incident, in January 2019, a Verulam mother pleaded guilty to attempted murder after she dumped her newborn baby in a black garbage bag and left the child on the roadside to be picked up by waste services.
The baby was rescued by Reaction Unit SA.
The Post reported that the 31-year-old woman, who cannot be named as she has two other minor children, was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years, on condition that she is not convicted of the same crime.
She was given correctional supervision.
IOL