A 20-year-old woman from East London has been arrested after the body of a newborn was discovered in a dustbin at a university student residence.
Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli, spokesperson for the Majola Nkohli, confirmed that the woman has been charged with the concealment of birth. The infant’s body was found on Friday, and investigations are underway to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident. The woman is expected to appear in court soon.
At this point, it is unclear whether the woman is a student at the university where the body was found.
In other related incidents, a scrap collector recently found an unresponsive newborn baby in a plastic bag, and a bloody trail led authorities to a newborn abandoned at a rubble site.
In a notable case in KwaZulu-Natal, a woman was sentenced to three years in prison in September 2020 for attempting to kill her newborn by abandoning it in a pit latrine. The mother, who had three children, admitted to feeling ashamed of her pregnancy, as it was out of wedlock. She had concealed the pregnancy from her family. The child, rescued after nearly four hours by emergency services, became the focus of a viral social media campaign.
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