Authorities in South Africa are urging parents to hand over unwanted babies to police or healthcare facilities instead of abandoning them, as cases of baby dumping continue to rise across the country.
Parents have been urged to hand over their unwanted babies to the police or leave them at healthcare facilities instead of dumping them anywhere. The number of babies being abandoned in public throughout the country seems to be on the rise, with a slight increase recorded in the Eastern Cape. In the latest incident, a baby boy was found in a black refuse bag hidden under a bridge in the Eastern Cape last week.
Eastern Cape social development MEC Bukiwe Fanta’s spokesperson, Mphumzi Zuzile, said the boy weighed 2.3kg and was healthy when he was found in Mdantsane, East London on Friday. The boy was taken to Cecilia Makiwane Hospital. Zuzile said the baby was found by community members, who alerted the police. He said the infant was only a week old when found. “We are appealing to the parents to do the right thing by taking their children to a police station and or health care facility. They must feel free because no one will arrest them as they will be assisted by social workers, but if they decide to dump them then that is where there will be a problem because the police will arrest them,” Zuzile said. “At all the facilities that I mentioned, there are social workers and other professionals who can assist in the process of handing over a child.” From March to December last year, a total of 39 babies were dumped in the Eastern Cape, while only 36 such cases were formally recorded. The latest national statistics, publicly available from the social development department, showed that 250 cases of baby-dumping were recorded from January to December 2023. According to the department, all the babies were found alive and were placed in different shelters, while two of them were reunited with their families. The national department could not provide the latest figures yesterday, after promising to do so earlie
BABY DUMPING SOUTH AFRICA SOCIAL SERVICES PARENTING CHILD WELFARE
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