A homeless man made a horrifying discovery on Friday morning while rummaging through a rubbish bin close to the Hill and New Street intersection.
A homeless man made a horrifying discovery on Friday morning while rummaging through a rubbish bin close to the Hill and New Street intersection.
What Thanduxolo Mangali found was the dead body of a newly-born baby. Mangali said he usually collects tins from street bins but was surprised when he found something wrapped in a towel on Friday. Then he realised it was a dead infant. "I was shocked and jumped away, left all that I was doing," Mangali said.
A street child, who was the second to see the baby's body, confirmed what happened. He said he had gone to Mangali to ask for matches, but instead the man asked him to come and see what was in the bin.
When I came I saw that it's a baby left in this bin, the child said. Another witness soon on the scene Noluthando Cwesa said she knows Mangali as she always sees him looking for tins and sometimes helps him.
[On Friday] as I was walking he stopped me to come see what was in the bin. When he told me that it's a baby I didn't even want to look at it as I was scared to see a dead baby left in a bin.
Still in shock, she had the sense to flag down a passing police vehicle and immediately reported the incident to the officers. Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender confirmed Cwesa's statement and said: "This is a newly-born baby who was wrapped in a towel and now we are going to investigate a case of concealment of birth. At this stage we don't know when the baby was dropped in the bin and the motive for this."
Dozens of policemen and emergency services personnel converged on the scene to assist with investigations, but it was too late to save the baby. At the time of going to press, police had not yet revealed the gender of the deceased baby nor had they released any information about its mother.
Three years ago, the partially clothed body of a new-born baby was found in a bin in front of the Hill Street Public Library. Police forensic services never revealed any information about their investigations to this newspaper in spite of repeated requests for information.
