Everson Luhanga
A group of community members in Tembisa’s Hospital View section caught a woman who had dumped her baby outside a stranger’s house.
The residents, all women, saw the woman place a wrapped blanket at the garage door of a house in their neighbourhood and leave without saying a word to anyone.
Knowing that the owners of the house were at work, the worried women checked what was wrapped in the blanket.
They were shocked to find out that it was a baby girl, just a few weeks old.
But they were happy to find the child alive – and they were angry at the woman who had abandoned the baby.
While they were discussing what to do with the child, they saw the woman again. They held her and called the Tembisa Rabasotho police, who arrested her for child negligence.
Sapinah Mogane was one of the women who arrested the woman.
She said it was heart-breaking to see the child abandoned. “The baby was weak and looked hungry. It was a sad scene to witness the suffering of a child as a mother and a grandmother.”
She said they gave the child a name soon after she arrived at the hospital. She is called Neo.
Police spokeswoman Constable Patricia Mgijima confirmed the arrest.
Mgijima said the police received a call from concerned residents and rushed to the scene where a 27-year-old woman was arrested.
The baby was handed over to the Child Protection Unit for further medical attention and placement to social welfare.
The woman will appear at the Tembisa Magistrate’s Court to answer a charge of child neglect.
