SECUNDA – Four people were arrested for allegedly kidnapping a pregnant woman and performing an abortion on her.
According to Capt Bettina Zondo, spokesman of Secunda Police, the 20-year-old woman was eight months pregnant and was allegedly abducted by her aunt, Ms Lydia Mojemba (34), and Messrs Seyikabi Wilson (46), Jingo Wassua (35) and Njombozi Katiti (43) on Friday, 13 July. One of the men is in a relationship with the aunt.
The young mother-to-be was snatched from her home in Sunset Park in Secunda and taken to Ogies, according to Capt Zondo.
Investigators said the young woman was locked in a room in Ogies where three abortion tablets were forced down her throat and more were vaginally inserted. When the first attempt to kill and abort the baby did not work, more tablets were forced into her until the child was born.
The four then wrapped the body of the still-born child in plastic and dumped it next to the train tracks at a bridge in Ogies.
The young woman managed to escape from the room after several days and fled to Secunda.
She told her boyfriend about the attack. He alerted the police.
Detectives from Secunda Police escorted the young woman to Ogies where she pointed out the suspects. They were arrested. They showed the police where they had dumped the little body, but by that time it was no longer there.
The woman claimed her aunt is a traditional healer who also works as an abortionist and was allegedly furious when the niece, who was supposed to recruit clients for her aunt in Secunda, fell in love and became pregnant.
The four accused appeared in the Secunda Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 23 July on charges of kidnapping, murder and attempted murder. They are remanded in custody and the case was postponed to Monday 30 July for a formal bail application and further investigation.
The Provincial Commissioner of the Police in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant General Mondli Zuma, condemned the act and labelled it evil.
He asked that the public will remain calm and restrain from taking law into their own hands while the process of law is in motion.
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