A newborn baby, suspected to have been only a few hours old, was discovered encased in plastic bags and dumped inside a rubbish bin next to a church along Joe Slovo Drive and Abel Road in Berea at about 8.30am on 1 May.
Hillbrow police spokesperson, sergeant Mduduzi Zondo told City Buzz that the May Day baby had no obvious injuries at the time of discovery. “The baby was found alive, with its umbilical cord attached,” he said. “The identity of the perpetrator remains unknown at this stage but an investigation by the police is underway.” Zondo added that the baby, whose gender was confirmed as female, was transported to the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital for urgent medical attention. The motive for the baby’s abandonment is, however, still unknown.
Read: UPDATE: Perpetrator throws baby over balcony then jumps
Meanwhile, a clearly bemused witness, Ronnie Robins (25), who resides at the Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church, in the immediate vicinity of where the baby was abandoned, told the publication that while in bed, he heard a faint commotion outside, got out of bed and made his way to the source of the chatter where he noticed a group of people gathered around the dustbin.
“I saw a black plastic bag inside the rubbish bin. People were too scared to open it,” he said. “I knew something was wrong and so I decided to open the plastic bag and noticed there was also a white plastic bag wrapped around the baby. After opening it, I saw the baby inside full of blood, with its eyes open and with its umbilical cord still attached. Surprisingly though, the baby wasn’t crying.”
Read: Investigations continue into an attempted robbery and murder of a shop owner in Hillbrow
Robins added, “I’d never seen anything like that before and so I was scared too but I had to do something. I ran inside, got my hoodie to wrap the baby in since it was cold. The paramedics arrived soon afterwards and took the baby to the hospital.”
City Buzz will provide updates on this story, once more information is made available.
Edited by Beryl Knipe
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