Clayton Shereni
A 16-year-old girl from Tapesana village under Chief Mapanzure, recently appeared before Masvingo magistrate Candice Kasere for allegedly dumping her new-born baby girl at Musogwisi River bank after secretly giving birth.
The juvenile was charged with concealment of birth as defined in Section 106 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 09:23.
Magistrate Kasere remanded the girl out of custody for further trial and sentencing.
It is the State’s case that on November 28, at around noon, the girl felt labour pains and left her home without notifying her boyfriend whom she was staying with.
The girl went to a bushy along the river bank where she gave birth but left the baby for dead and went back home.
She however went back to check on the baby on November 30 at about the same time but she found her already dead.
After seeing the dead body, she fled the scene but was spotted by a passer-by Admire Museva who got suspicious. When he went to investigate, he saw the lifeless body of the baby and went to report the matter to the police, leading to the juvenile’s arrest.
The body was taken to Masvingo Provincial Hospital where a postmortem was conducted but the actual cause of death could not be figured out due to the body’s advanced state of decomposition.
Andrew Ndaramira represented the State.
