Many Laudium residents are still in shock, following news of the body of a baby boy, believed to be about a week old, being found in a dustbin, on Clove Street, (near Heliodor Str) Laudium. The story which was posted on the Laudium Sun FB Page, went viral, on social media platforms.
The shocking finding was made this past Wednesday, (July 13) at around 9:30 in the morning. It is believed that the owner had left the dustbin outside in the early morning, as it was the day for the council truck to empty the bins.
According to a bystander at the scene, a waste picker, who was looking for recyclable material in the dustbin, found the body of the baby, which was wrapped in a black gown with pink hearts, then placed in a white & pink canvass bag and immediately informed one of the domestic workers in the area, who notified her employer. An ambulance was summoned. However, about 10 minutes after arrival and trying to revive the baby, paramedics declared the baby dead. It is believed that the body of the baby was still warm and that the belt of the gown was tied around his neck, indicating that the baby was possibly strangled.
According to another neighbour, the mother of the baby had used one of her four unsuspecting children to throw the bag in the bin.
The Laudium Sun managed to trace the mother to a house on Cinnamon Street, where she was living in a small room with her four children, which had no ablution facilities. However, our reporters were informed that the mother had been arrested and that her four children were removed by social workers. There are a number of different families living on the Cinnamon Str property, which is sub divided into different sections.
According to one of the tenants, a Nigerian, who did not want to give us his name, the mother was poverty stricken and had no money to buy diapers or baby food for the child. The father believed to be an ‘Indian’ or a ‘Coloured’ apparently refused to take responsibility for the child, according to a neighbours.
One of the first on the scene was PAJ Patrollers, whose Prajay Ramjee told the Laudium Sun, “At 09h30, a report was sent on our security group that a baby was found in a dustbin on Clove Street, close to the park. On arrival, our response officer found a greyish and pink bag in which the body of the baby was wrapped. Soon afterwards SAPS & Netcare 911 arrived on the scene. Paramedics tried to revive the baby, but were unsuccessful.”
A resident from Corundum Street, Nunka Manzi who knows the mother told the Laudium Sun,”I was shocked to hear about the baby. I know the mother Modikwe Octavia who we called Phomolo. We sometimes meet on the streets as she lives just behind me.”
A tenant at the Cinnamon Street house, Yasmeen Ebrahim, who lives in the front portion of the house, told the Laudium Sun, “I just moved into the house a month ago, but didn’t know Phomolo very well. I didn’t know that she was pregnant. I hardly saw her, but saw her kids often, as they always play outside. I do know that she was living very uncomfortably with her 4 kids in a very small room at the back of the house. Her eldest daughter who is 19 years old, used to go to madressah, but the rest were not in school. I really feel so sorry for that baby who was just dumped like that. I wish we knew earlier, so we could have helped or even tried to find the father of the baby.”
Shakeel Bhaktawer, from Councillor Patel’s office told the Laudium Sun, “We were called by residents of Clove Street, reporting a baby dumped in the municipal dustbin in front of a resident’s house. We immediately went to the scene and found emergency services, the Laudium Sun, SAPS and a security vehicle on the scene. Paramedics declared the baby dead within minutes after our arrival. The mother of the child had already been taken into custody and a SAPS officer informed us of the other 4 kids still in the rented room. We called for the child welfare services to assist. When we got to the residence where the other kids were, we were appalled by the conditions they lived in. They were all squashed in a small room with a single bed, no toilet or washing facility. The kids aged 19,13,11 and 9 confirmed that they stayed with their mum in that room. The kids were immediately removed and placed under child welfare care. We are now working with the relevant authorities to investigate the living conditions of the tenants in that house. The owner of the property does not stay there and was not available. There are more than 8 families residing in the back yard, living in appalling conditions. This is currently happening on a lot of properties in our ward. This is why we experience many issues regarding overloading of electricity and sewage. An urgent meeting has been arranged with the relevant MMC to get assistance with the departments to rid our area of slums. People need to take responsibility and one of the recommendations from the City is to hold property owners liable for any by-law violations. We again plead with our residents that we have many forums and platforms which can try to assist with poverty related issues, so as to avoid such an inhumane thing.”
The Laudium Sun spoke to Sergeant Chokoe of the Laudium SAPS, who confirmed that the mother was taken into custody and was being charged for murder, whilst the kids were taken away by officials from the welfare.
