16-year-old girl regrettably dumps newborn in a pit toilet

On January 4, 2024, paramedics and Umhlali South African Police Service (SAPS) K9 Search and Rescue responded to a distressed call in Maphumulo. Reports had come in about a newborn baby that was dumped in a pit toilet

According to reports from the scene of the incident, a 16-year-old girl allegedly hid the pregnancy and birth of her baby. Once the child was born she placed it in a plastic bag and disposed the infant in a 2m deep, abandoned pit lantrine in a neighbour’s yard.

16-year-old mother arrested after her baby was found in a pit toilet

Emergency responders successfully retrieved the tiny plastic bag from the toilet which contained the newborn’s body.

The deceased baby was then handed over to Maphumulo SAPS as part of an ongoing investigation.

In response to this tragic event, the 16-year-old girl and her mother have been arrested, and the authorities are conducting a thorough investigation to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragic end of an innocent life.

Teenage pregnancy pandemic

Teenage pregnancies remain a huge problem in our society, between March 2022 and March 2023, there was a concerning rise in teenage pregnancies, with nearly 90,000 reported cases among girls aged 10 to 19. More recent statistics indicate a substantial increase in teenage pregnancies, reaching over 150,000 during the 2022/2023 financial year.

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