A vagrant scavenging through a rubbish bin got more than he bargained for when he grabbed hold of a baby's foot.
|||Durban - A vagrant scavenging through a rubbish bin in Umbilo got more than he bargained for when he inadvertently grabbed hold of a baby’s foot on Wednesday morning.
The body of a newborn baby was found buried under rubbish in a bin at a busy intersection outside an old-age home and a nursing college.
Witnesses, who did not want to be named, said the vagrant who found the baby had been rummaging for food. “He came across the road and just stood in front of us with a shocked look on his face, not saying anything,” said one man.
After a while, the vagrant told them there was a baby in the bin, before walking off.
“I did not have the heart to go look; some youngsters went, then phoned the police,” said another man.
Around noon, police arrived and called in Combined Care paramedics.
Chief operations officer Rob Letang said: “The baby had been placed in a black shopping bag and buried under some rubbish.”
He added that people must have unknowingly thrown rubbish on top of it. “To anyone else it would have just looked like rubbish.”
After tearing the bag open to see if anything could be done for the baby boy, he realised it was dead.
“He was fully developed, must have been four or five hours old, with the placenta still attached,” said Letang.
A medical glove was found next to the baby’s mucus-and blood-covered body.
Police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane said a case of concealment of birth had been opened.
In a separate incident, Pinetown police are trying to trace the mother of a baby found in a rubbish bin outside a car dealership in the area on Monday.
Zwane said police were called in after an employee noticed the baby bundled in a blanket in the bin.
“The umbilical cord was still attached and the baby was covered in placenta.”
Jenni Wallace, the founder of Domino Babies, an organisation that helps the needy, said she believed mothers were driven to such extreme measures mainly for two reasons: severe poverty, or because the baby is a product of rape.
“They don’t have an emotional bond with the child and don’t want them,” she said.
Wallace urged women in such circumstances to approach social welfare and organisations like Domino Babies to seek help.
“They should know there are options. It is for this reason that we had a Babysafe installed so they could leave their unwanted baby safely and anonymously,” she said.
A Babysafe is a cushioned metal box built into the perimeter wall of a safe house. It has doors on either side of the wall so that a mother who doesn’t want her baby can place it in the safe and walk away, not having to face anyone.
The weight of the baby triggers an alarm, alerting caregivers, who then retrieve the baby within minutes for care and later adoption.
Wallace said the safe at Domino Babies in Durban North would be opened next week.
Daily News