Police are investigating after the body of a newborn baby was found floating in dirty water near a sewage pump in Phoenix, Milnerton. A passer-by spotted the infant in Milky Way Drive at around 11am on Tuesday, with an eyewitness describing the baby as fully developed. No arrests have been made.
The discovery was made on Tuesday, 10 November, after the passer-by alerted the authorities.
An eyewitness at the scene said the baby appeared to be full-term.
“When I was at the scene, I could see the child was not a foetus, but a fully developed child. I could see the legs, hands and arms of the baby as the child was lying in the water,” the witness said.
“The child was lying just like that, naked in the water. The authorities used what appeared to be blue plastic to take the child out of the water.”
Police spokesperson Thembakazi Mpendukana confirmed that a concealment of birth docket had been registered.
“Milnerton SAPS has opened a concealment of birth case following the discovery of a newborn baby near a sewage pump in Milky Way Drive, Phoenix, on Tuesday, 10 November, around 11:00. No arrests have been made yet, and the investigation continues,” Mpendukana said.
Other infant abandonment cases reported in Cape Town
The incident is the latest in a string of infant abandonments reported across the metropole.
Three weeks ago, the body of an infant was discovered wrapped in a blood-dripping black plastic bag in an open field along Leiden Avenue in Delft, where Neighbourhood Watch leader Reginald Hills found the bag in a ditch.
In late August, municipal waste collectors found a dead newborn girl discarded inside a rubbish bin on Dassie Road in Vrygrond.
Newborn survives after being abandoned in Eerste River
In a rare positive outcome on 8 September, a newborn girl survived after being abandoned in bushes in Eerste River with her umbilical cord still attached.
A local neighbourhood security watch team located the infant in time and rushed her to a nearby hospital for emergency care.