adminThe Herald, June 14, 1985
A 20-YEAR-OLD schoolgirl who dumped her premature baby into a pit latrine soon after it was born was yesterday jailed for three years after being convicted of attempted murder in the High Court, Harare.
Farayi Mupindu, who was 20 when she dumped her baby on August 5 last year, seven months after conception, was charged with murder, but the court, presided over by Mrs Justice Gibson sitting with Mr Wasvosve Gahadza and Mr CW Hobley as assessors, found her guilty only of attempted murder.
An affidavit from a Government doctor said the baby might have lived had there been adequate post-delivery care.
Mupindu told her mother of the birth and dumping soon after it had happened and a friend managed to rescue the child who was taken to Madziwa hospital the next day. The baby died in hospital.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Baby dumping occurs when parents leave a child younger than 12 months in a public or private place with the intention of passing on the burden of looking after their child to other people.
One of the major reasons behind baby dumping is unplanned pregnancy, which is often the result of unsafe and unprotected sex. It usually happens with teenagers or adolescents who are still experimenting with sex.
Baby dumping is on the increase in Zimbabwe, which calls on Government and organisations that deal with teenagers to scale up the drive on sex education in schools and tertiary education as well as the distribution of contraceptives to promote safe sex.
There is also need to dedicate more resources to hospitals and the department of social welfare which cater for infants that would have been dumped.
Online Reporter