Newborn baby abandoned in bushes, 27-year-old woman arrested

Mpumalanga police arrested a 27-year-old woman on Monday after she allegedly abandoned her newborn baby in Bushbuckridge four days earlier.

According to police, two women were walking next to a school in College View when they heard a baby crying in the nearby bushes.

“As they drew closer, they then discovered an abandoned infant who was probably about a day old,” police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said.

“Police were then alerted, and the baby was taken to hospital while a case of child neglect was opened for investigation.”

On Monday, the baby’s mother went to the police station in Bushbuckridge and claimed she had abandoned her newborn baby days earlier.

Mohlala said the woman was arrested and charged.

However, she did not appear in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday as the case was not enrolled.

Mohlala said the case was still being investigated, and the baby remained in hospital, where she was being monitored.

Mpumalanga police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Daphney Manamela condemned the incident and called on society for “a moral regeneration.”

“We believe it is paramount for families, traditional leaders and spiritual leaders to assist in restoring the moral fibre of our society,” Manamela said.