Two Western Cape mothers were arrested in connection with the deaths of their children. (Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images)
- A 7-year-old boy and an infant girl were found dead in separate incidents in Oudtshoorn and Plettenberg Bay.
- Two mothers have been charged with their respective deaths.
- One has already appeared in court.
Western Cape police have arrested two women for the murder of their children in two separate incidents, in Oudtshoorn and in Plettenberg Bay along the southern Cape coast.
In the first incident, according to police spokesperson Sergeant Christopher Spies, the lifeless body of a 7-year-old boy was found in a bedroom in Korhaan Avenue, Bridgeton, Oudtshoorn, on 11 August.
Spies said:
Paramedics later declared him dead on the scene. The police initially opened an inquest docket for further investigation. However, a post-mortem conducted later indicated that the victim died of strangulation. The docket was subsequently changed to murder.
The boy’s 39-year-old mother was arrested on 21 August on a charge of murder.
“She made her first court appearance in the Oudtshoorn Magistrates’ on Friday, 23 August, on a murder charge,” Spies added,
The case was postponed to Tuesday.
In the second incident last Monday, 19 August, Plettenberg Bay police were dispatched to a crime scene next to the N2 highway, opposite Kwanokuthula, where the body of an infant girl, believed to be three days old, was found.
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“Investigation took police to a nearby hospital where a woman gave birth to the girl earlier this month. The woman was tracked down to Kwanokuthula and arrested on a murder charge,” Spies added.
The 23-year-old woman, who is in custody, is expected to make her first court appearance in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court later on Monday.
