Chronicle Editor
Codelia Mondela, Court Reporter
A BULAWAYO woman allegedly drowned her one-month-old baby in Umguza River in the presence of her one-year-old daughter.
Taboka Nkomo (21) of Pumula East suburb allegedly undressed her baby boy and threw him into the river and left after he had drowned.
Nkomo was not asked to plead to infanticide when she appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Franklin Mkhwananzi.
Mr Mkhwananzi granted her $50 bail and remanded the matter to February 1.
Prosecuting, Mr Tawurai Hondoyemoto alleged that Nkomo threw the baby into the river last Saturday morning.
“Around 9AM, she took the children to Umguza River at Woodville suburb in Bulawayo, where she undressed her son and threw him alive into the river.
She waited for a while and left after realising that the infant had drowned,” Mr Hondoyemoto said.
She said Nkomo proceeded to Pumula East where her grandmother stays.
Her grandmother asked where her son was and she said he died in Woodville after suffering from inkanda (fontanelle). Her grandmother continued probing which parlour had buried him. Nkomo responded by asking if everyone needed the services of a funeral parlour to bury someone.
The court heard that her grandmother reported Nkomo to a member of the neighbourhood watch committee who took her to Pumula Police Station. The deceased’s body was retrieved by the police and it was taken to the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH).
A post-mortem conducted at UBH revealed that the infant died due to drowning. — @MondelaC
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter