Pixabay
Pixabay
It’s gruesome reading for anyone with a shread of decency. But according to The Trauma Centre for Survivors, it’s part of a worrying trend: A recent case of ‘neonaticide’ took the amount of children murdered in the Western Cape this year up to 50.
The accused, who can’t be named for legal reasons, appeared in the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. She has four other children but will remain in police custody until her bail application.
What is ‘neonaticide’?
Neonaticide is the term used to describe the murder of a child aged 28 days or younger. On Saturday, a mother of a baby aged just one day strangled her son. She then hid him under the mattress of their Mitchell’s Plain home.
The department released a statement confirming the other children had gone to live with another relative. They wholly condemned the 32-year-old mother’s actions:
“Social workers from our Mitchell’s Plain local office have intervened to protect the other four children the woman has. The children have been placed in alternative care of a relative and counselling assistance is being rendered to the children.
“We condemn this brutal murder and the alleged circumstances of this incident in the strongest terms possible. However, that the alleged murderer is allegedly the mother of the baby is most outrageous.”
Read: Zuma delcares a ‘state of crisis’ following Courtney Pieters murder.
The shocking figures of SA’s infant mortality rates
The Medical Research Council estimate that 19 of every 100,000 births in South Africa end in neonaticide: That’s just over 1 in every 5,000, or 0.02% of all births.
The Trauma Centre for Survivors estimates that there have been at least 50 young children murdered in the Western Cape alone this year. These figures are on the increase according to local research.
The Western Cape’s social development department pledged to assist police with their investigation into the murder, as the rate of child murders in the province continues to climb.
