Yet another Cape Town baby has been abandoned by its mother, this time in a bucket toilet in Philippi’s Emangcwabeni informal settlement. Nomzi Gebenga, 29, said she slipped out of her shack at about 6am on Sunday morning to relieve herself at the communal toilets and was called over by a neighbour who had found the lifeless body of a prematurely-born baby boy.Shocked resident quickly gathered to witness the scene. Police later arrived and cordoned off the scene.
“I quickly went to the area committee to notify them about the discovery and then police were called,” said Gebenga.
“I was shocked and I am still shaken by this experience,” she said on Sunday afternoon.
Resident No-Amen Skhalo, 36, who lives close to the toilets
Community members compiled a list of all the women in the settlement who were known to be pregnant and they were identified, but none of them had recently given birth.
REsident No-Amen Skhalo, 36, said: “It’s difficult to know who dumped the new born because women that were pregnant in the area are still pregnant. The person who did this evil must be living in another area, not here.
“How come people can be so cruel and after months of carrying a child in the womb decide to dump the baby. That baby is innocent and does not deserve this,” she said.
Sunday’s incident comes a week after Development MEC Patricia de Lille held an ‘emergency summit’ at the provincial legislature where organisations dealing with the abandonment of children gathered to discuss how the phenomenon could be addressed.
The summit concluded that education programmes for both boys and girls at school was necessary to teach teenagers about the impacts of teenage pregnancy and its consequences..
At the summit De Lille said the reason babies were abandoned was because they were unplanned, in some instances the mothers may have raped.
Lack of familial and financial support, being infected with HIV, substances and alcohol abuse were other contributing factors to mothers abandoning their children, she said.
Nyanga police station spokesperson Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi said a case of concealment of birth had been opened but no-one has been arrested.
She said anyone with information could contact the Nyanga police station at 021 380 3376/3320 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111.
— West Cape News
“I quickly went to the area committee to notify them about the discovery and then police were called,” said Gebenga.
“I was shocked and I am still shaken by this experience,” she said on Sunday afternoon.
Resident No-Amen Skhalo, 36, who lives close to the toilets
Community members compiled a list of all the women in the settlement who were known to be pregnant and they were identified, but none of them had recently given birth.
REsident No-Amen Skhalo, 36, said: “It’s difficult to know who dumped the new born because women that were pregnant in the area are still pregnant. The person who did this evil must be living in another area, not here.
“How come people can be so cruel and after months of carrying a child in the womb decide to dump the baby. That baby is innocent and does not deserve this,” she said.
Sunday’s incident comes a week after Development MEC Patricia de Lille held an ‘emergency summit’ at the provincial legislature where organisations dealing with the abandonment of children gathered to discuss how the phenomenon could be addressed.
The summit concluded that education programmes for both boys and girls at school was necessary to teach teenagers about the impacts of teenage pregnancy and its consequences..
At the summit De Lille said the reason babies were abandoned was because they were unplanned, in some instances the mothers may have raped.
Lack of familial and financial support, being infected with HIV, substances and alcohol abuse were other contributing factors to mothers abandoning their children, she said.
Nyanga police station spokesperson Ntomboxolo Sitshitshi said a case of concealment of birth had been opened but no-one has been arrested.
She said anyone with information could contact the Nyanga police station at 021 380 3376/3320 or Crime Stop at 08600 10111.
— West Cape News
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