Baby dumped outside Margate home

The man who found an abandoned newborn baby girl outside his gate in Margate recently, said he would care for the baby he if could.

Siso Mnside told Fever that he heard a baby crying in the early hours of Thursday while he was having a morning smoke in his yard.
He added that the moment he saw a baby covered with a towel, he immediately called the police.

“The child was alive when I found her, I called the police since I do not live too far away from the Margate police station. When the police arrived, they called an ambulance,” he said.

He added that because he lives on a road that is mostly used by ‘ladies of the night’ (prostitutes), he assumes that the baby could belong to one of them.

Margate police spokesperson, Sergeant Sibu Ncane said a case of child abandonment has been opened for investigation by Margate SAPS after an infant female child was found abandoned in Uplands Road, Margate at about 6am on Thursday, January 19.

“The child was wrapped in a towel and skirt and was taken to a nearby hospital to be examined. Anyone with information is requested to come forward and speak to the police. The case will be further investigated by the Margate FCS,” said Ncane.

Meanwhile, Mnside said: “I am against dumping babies. I wanted to take that child and be her parent. I know there are legal procedures that need to be followed for one to foster a child and I know that I have shortcomings such as not being financially stable that would prevent me from parenting the child, but how that child was dumped broke my heart.”

KwaZulu-Natal Social Development MEC, Nonhlanhla Khoza encourages parents who are unable to care for their children to seek help at a clinic, hospital or the department.

“We want to urge parents not to resort to dumping children regardless of situations they face. As the department, we have solutions available to help them and their children,” Khoza said.

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