Tinaye Agere
Online Reporter
A 23-year-old woman who lives at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare appeared in court on allegations of strangling her newborn baby, stashing the body in a plastic bag and dumping it in a bin to conceal the offence.
Nancy Chitsiga appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Court charged with infanticide.
Chitsiga told the court that she did not intentionally kill the baby but accidentally pulled the umbilical code, resulting in the newborn baby’s death.
She is expected back in court tomorrow for sentencing.
It is the State’s case that on July 26, 2024, at around 4.45am, Chitsiga woke up feeling some birth pains and went into the toilet, where she self-delivered a baby boy.
After giving birth to a live baby, she allegedly strangled it to death and wrapped it in a plastic bag.
She then placed the plastic bag inside a cardboard box and threw it beside a bin.
Chitsiga reportedly went on to do her house chores, acting as if nothing had happened.
After finishing her chores, she took the baby’s body together with other litter and threw it in a dumping pit across the road.
However, at around midday, a 12-year-old boy from the same Chikurubi Maximum Prison Camp and his friend went to the dumping pit intending to throw away some litter and discovered the body.
Bongani Ndlovu