A three-month-old baby girl was found on a makeshift mattress of her own clothing after being abandoned in a ditch along a footpath in Draaifontein Road in Port Elizabeth this week.
While walking to visit his friends’ sons at St Albans Prison on Thursday, Greenbushes resident Jaco McPherson heard the faint cries of an infant coming from bushes along the footpath.
McPherson, 52, said he had been stunned when at about 8.15am he found the abandoned infant, her face covered by a white cloth, lying in a ditch.
He said a plastic bag with some remaining clothes had been used as a pillow for the baby, who was dressed in a short-sleeved top and dress.
A dummy was pinned to her vest and a quarter-filled milk bottle was found nearby.
McPherson said the baby had instantly stopped crying when he picked her up. “It feels like I am still in a dream. “It felt like I was watching myself from the outside as I picked the baby up,” he said.
“I believe God wanted me to find that baby, as usually every Thursday I leave to visit the boys in St Albans by 7.45am at the latest.”
He said the infant could not have been in bush for more than a hour as her body was still warm to the touch.
“On Thursday I only left at 8.15am . . . When I picked her up I looked around and there was nobody in sight.
“And the way she was placed in the ditch, there was no way one could see her if you were driving by in a car,” McPherson said.
“I brought her back to the house. Then we contacted the Salvation Army and the police.
“The whole time while she was with us she was dead quiet, just looking at all of us with those big eyes.
“I can’t imagine what type of person would abandon a baby like that – especially one so small and helpless.
“I remember how small she felt in my arms when I picked her up.
“I am just grateful we could help before things got worse.”
Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the man had initially taken the baby to the Salvation Army, who then handed her over to the police.
“When the baby arrived at the Kabega Park police station’s victim support centre, she received a clean change of clothing.
“She was cold, having been in the damp clothing.
“They also fed her with a bottle of warm milk,” Naidu said.
“The infant was then taken to Dora Nginza Hospital and handed over to social workers.”
After an initial appeal by police for information concerning the whereabouts of the baby’s mother, Naidu confirmed later yesterday that a 24-year-old woman had been arrested in Kuyga.
“At about 1pm [yesterday], Kabega Park police arrested the mother of the abandoned infant,” Naidu said.
“Police received information from a community member that the mother would be visiting an aunt in Kuyga, where she was arrested.”
Dora Nginza Hospital principal social worker Pamela Rubushe confirmed that the baby was still in their care yesterday.
She said this was the sixth reported abandoned baby in the Bay since the beginning of the year.
“She is in good health, everything is fine with her,” Rubushe said.
“But there should never be an instance where a child needs to be abandoned.
“The correct procedure is while you are still pregnant and are aware that you are not in a position to take care of the child, then it is as simple as informing the sister you are seeing at the clinic, who will subsequently inform a social worker and the adoption process will be arranged for you.”
The woman is due to appear in the St Albans Magistrate’s Court on Monday.