Bloemfontein – Police have appealed for help in tracking down the mother of a newborn baby whose body was recovered from a municipal pump station in the Free State last month.
Police spokesperson Warrant Officer Malebo Khosana said the South African Police Service in Thabong were investigating a concealment of birth case after the discovery of the body.
He said several Matjhabeng municipality workers were going about their daily maintenance of the sewerage pipes near the Virginia Correctional Services centre on the morning of September 3 when “one of them noticed a black plastic bag floating on top of the water.”
A worker retrieved the bag out of the water with a rake and “when they unwrapped the plastic bag they found that the contents was a newborn baby as the umbilical cord was still hanging on the body”.
The police were notified and attended the scene. The newborn baby, which was determined to be a female that was “about to be born” was certified dead at the scene.
Khosana said a case of concealment of birth was opened for investigation and assigned to Detective Constable Seadimo Mokogothu from the Virgina SAPS Dectective Unit for “further investigation”.
Mokogothu found that there was a “possibility that the infant’s body might have been dumped in the sewerage channel at any of the towns near Virgina, such as Welkom, Bronville, Meloding, Thabong or even as far as Ventersburg”.
Police have consulted health services in an attempt to track down the woman who dumped the baby but to no avail. Khosana who said the case is a hard one “to crack” and has therefore appealed to all community members in the areas mentioned to assist with information, and to contact Mokogothu with more information at 057 221 0123 or 083 551 1469.
ANA