A provincial police spokesperson, Brig Selvy Mohlala, said a woman had turned herself into the Bushbuckridge police on Monday March 7, claiming that she was the mother of the baby who had been found abandoned last week.

The baby was found by a 19-year-old Grade 12 learner on Thursday March 3. Natasha Malinda was on her way to school for her afternoon classes when she heard a child crying. When she got closer, she saw a baby lying there with the umbilical cord tied up with wool. She called the police, who immediately took the baby to the hospital.

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“The police locked Malele up and charged her accordingly. The woman is not off the hook yet. However, when she was taken to Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s Court on the same day for her appearance, she was confirmed as the mother, but the case was not enrolled, pending investigation. The child is still in the hospital where she is being monitored while the probe continues,” said Mohlala. The provincial police commissioner, Lt Gen Semakaleng Manamela, has strongly condemned this incident, and made a call to society for moral regeneration. “We believe it is paramount for families, traditional leaders and spiritual leaders to assist in restoring the moral fibre of our society,” she said.