Trash babies

Thrown out like just some more rubbish, this was the fate of two babies over a period of just four days in separate occurances over last week.

On Monday, a dead baby who is thought to have been a newborn, was found by a municipal worker in a plastic bag, dumped in a refuse bin in Nelson Mandela Drive in Superbia. “I was horrified and disgusted when I found the baby in a plastic bag, among the trash,” the municipal worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, said.

Last Thursday the body of another dead baby was found by a man in Buys Street, in Westenburg. He said he saw a dog dragging something and on closer inspection realised that it was the body of a baby.

Westenburg police spokesperson, Capt Mohlaka Mashiane, later confirmed that the tiny body had reportedly been found by the dog in a plastic bag near a refuse bin. The dog then dragged it away. In both cases, the police removed the bodies and are investigating.

The gender and ages of the babies could not be confirmed. A 25-year-old woman was arrested and appeared before the Polokwane magistrate’s court last Thursday on a charge of concealment of birth with regard to the latter incident, Mashiane said.

No arrest had been made regarding the most recent incident, he added.

Mashiane said the police were facing a huge challenge when it came to babies being dumped. He urged residents to make use of the facilities that exist to assist them in such cases and not to illegally abort their babies or to throw them away after they were born.

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“It is important that we (police) and residents unite to take a firm stand against people concealing the birth of their babies, and dumping them. Rather go to a medical facility where you can be assisted and informed of the choices you have. People must understand that they are breaking the law when they try to conceal the birth of a child and they can end up having a criminal record and spend time in jail,” Mashiane said.

Ngwana House is a home in Polokwane that takes care of unwanted and abandoned babies and young children. Manager of the project, Amanda Koekemoer, said more awareness must be created in communities to let the mothers of unborn children know that there were more than one choice when it came to the life of the baby they were carrying.

She said with the proper advice reluctant mothers-to-be could be empowered to make better choices, that could even lead to some of them keeping their baby or allowing their baby to be adopted.

The home’s social worker, Santie Oberholzer said if a mother felt she had absolutely no other option open to her other than to abandon her baby, she should rather leave her baby on Ngwana House’s doorstep. The home is in Springbok Street in Flora Park and the housemother is available 24/7.

“Just ring the bell and we will take care of the unwanted baby; we will never bother you again if that is really what you want from us,” Oberholzer said.