The body of a baby was found in Hazyview on Thursday April 15.
The body, which had been wrapped in a plastic bag and placed in a box, was found in the bush near the Hazyview police Station. Employees of Build it, which is located near the station, had received reports of a bad smell in the neighbourhood since the previous day.
The police were alerted about the body by community members after a passer-by had seen a cat eating it.
Witnesses, who did not wish to be named, said it was strange that it had taken so long for the body to be reported since the area is full of pedestrians and located near the SAPS.
he police have opened a case of concealment of birth. Child abandonment is a criminal offence in South Africa.
Capt Eurence Sibuyi of Hazyview SAPS said no arrests have been made. He said it was the first time in his career that he had witnessed something like this.
Statistics on child abandonment in South Africa are rare. Last year, the Department of Social Development denied reports that child abandonment had increased during lockdown.
According to a 2018 study by the South African Medical Research Council, 65 per cent of abandoned children were newborns and 90 per cent were under the age of one.
According to the Borgen Project, an international NGO that aims to fight poverty, poverty and the stigma against abortion are the main factors that drive child abandonment in South Africa.
This article was published in the Hazyview Herald.
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