News / Africa
Rats bit baby to death, mother out partying
02 Jun 2011 at 19:28hrs | Views
A baby was bitten to death on the weekend while her teenage mother was out partying.
Concerned neighbours said they had heard a baby crying out in pain in the middle of the night – by morning the baby was found dead, covered in bloody rat bites.
The teenage mother who lives with other school friends in a backyard shack in Orlando East, Soweto, had spent the whole night partying while her child was left unattended.
"These girls are irresponsible, they are drunkards and they smoke. They like partying and that's why this child died," said neighbour Mtsira Jakucha, 21.
The shocked neighbour said the dead baby was found on Monday morning by the police.
Another neighbour who asked not to be named said: "I was woken by a loud noise coming from next door when I went to see what was going on, I found that the young girl's child was covered in blood."
"I could see that the child was dead already, but this girl kept bathing her, we told her to stop but she did not want to accept that her child was dead," she said.
A friend of the teenage mother who attends Thaba-Jabula High School in Klipspruit said: "On Sunday night she (the teenage mother) came and gave me the keys of the shack she shares with some school friends." "She asked me to give the keys to any of her room mates as she was going out."
Another neighbour, Eunice Guleni, 65, said she was sorry about the baby's death, but "as a parent I am angry at her for doing this to that little baby, I did not want to ask her too much on the day we found her child dead, because she would think that we were ganging up on her".
Orlando police said they had arrested the teenage mother on Monday.
She appeared in the Orlando Magistrate's Court and was released on bail.
"We were called to the scene of the death of an infant due to a rat attack on Monday morning at around 9am. The mother of the child was arrested on charges of culpable homicide and negligence. She was released on bail yesterday morning," said WO Bongani Mhlongo.
Police says the infant was covered in blood and she was not dressed warmly.
"The child was not dressed very warmly, so the cold might have also contributed to her death," added Mhlongo.
Concerned neighbours said they had heard a baby crying out in pain in the middle of the night – by morning the baby was found dead, covered in bloody rat bites.
The teenage mother who lives with other school friends in a backyard shack in Orlando East, Soweto, had spent the whole night partying while her child was left unattended.
"These girls are irresponsible, they are drunkards and they smoke. They like partying and that's why this child died," said neighbour Mtsira Jakucha, 21.
The shocked neighbour said the dead baby was found on Monday morning by the police.
Another neighbour who asked not to be named said: "I was woken by a loud noise coming from next door when I went to see what was going on, I found that the young girl's child was covered in blood."
"I could see that the child was dead already, but this girl kept bathing her, we told her to stop but she did not want to accept that her child was dead," she said.
A friend of the teenage mother who attends Thaba-Jabula High School in Klipspruit said: "On Sunday night she (the teenage mother) came and gave me the keys of the shack she shares with some school friends." "She asked me to give the keys to any of her room mates as she was going out."
Another neighbour, Eunice Guleni, 65, said she was sorry about the baby's death, but "as a parent I am angry at her for doing this to that little baby, I did not want to ask her too much on the day we found her child dead, because she would think that we were ganging up on her".
Orlando police said they had arrested the teenage mother on Monday.
She appeared in the Orlando Magistrate's Court and was released on bail.
"We were called to the scene of the death of an infant due to a rat attack on Monday morning at around 9am. The mother of the child was arrested on charges of culpable homicide and negligence. She was released on bail yesterday morning," said WO Bongani Mhlongo.
Police says the infant was covered in blood and she was not dressed warmly.
"The child was not dressed very warmly, so the cold might have also contributed to her death," added Mhlongo.
Source - TNA
