One-year-old toddler drowns in 20-litre bucket

The detective head of Kwambonambi Police Station, Jabulani Ndaba, said the child, Zama Qwabe, was last seen by her mother playing with other children in the garden on Friday, Zululand Observer reported.

“When the mother returned to the garden after having gone inside the house, she saw her child’s feet sticking out of the bucket, her head underwater. She was certified dead on the scene,” added Ndaba. Investigations are ongoing.

Last month, a man allegedly drowned his daughter in a bucket filled with water in Pienaar, near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga. Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said the 18-year-old mother of the baby was visiting the suspect, Lindokuhle Maloka. At about 10.30pm she went out of the house.

“Maloka allegedly took the baby to another bedroom, where there was a bucket with water. He then drowned the baby. After the ordeal, he left the lifeless body of the baby inside the bucket and went away after he gave his mother R200,” added Mohlala.

“When the mother of the baby returned, she went to the room where she left Maloka and the baby, but found nobody. She then called him and enquired about his whereabouts and the baby. Maloka told her that she will find the baby in a bucket. The mother of the baby made the gruesome discovery together with Maloka’s mother,” said Mohlala.

The matter was then reported to the police for investigation, and the suspect was arrested the same day.

– Caxton News service