Police are investigating a case of concealment of birth after a deceased newborn baby was found wrapped inside a plastic bag in a ditch in Mitchells Plain.
Cops were called to the scene along AZ Berman Road near Beacon Valley after a passer-by made the gruesome discovery just after 4pm on Tuesday.
Rashieda Andrews, a member of the Beacon Valley Neighbourhood Watch, says that the baby was discovered by a wheelchair-bound resident who opened the sakkie thinking it was something he could use.
“The people were cleaning the trenches along the road and threw the bag to one side as they thought it was a dead cat that smelled so.
“One of the residents passed by and thought it was something that he could use and looked in it and saw it was a newborn dead baby,” Rashieda says.
She says the beautiful baby was curled up, as if he was still in the womb.
“It was very traumatising, the male baby was already dead. To think a mother could do something like that,” she says.
Police spokesperson, Captain FC Van Wyk, confirms: “Mitchells Plain police are investigating a concealment of birth case following the discovery of a premature male baby in a plastic bag on 15 August at about 4.15pm at AZ Berman Road, next to a primary school in Beacon Valley, Mitchells Plain.
“Ambulance personnel attended the scene and examined the bag. It was discovered that it’s a deceased baby boy.”
byron.lukas@inl.co.za