Her mind seemingly muddled by grief, a young mum is said to have wrapped her stillborn baby in plastic before dumping her tiny body down a pit-latrine toilet.
Appearing before Extension II Magistrates Courts on Monday (2 March), 29-year-old Tshegofatso Makoba pleaded guilty to concealing the birth of her child.
The Tlokweng native went into labour on 15 October 2022, giving birth to a baby girl. She claims the baby died during birth, and admits covering the infant’s head with a green plastic bag and her body in a white plastic bag, disposing of the remains at Mabutswe Farms.
The following day she informed her boyfriend she was feeling unwell.
When he visited her on 17 October, he noticed her feet were swollen.
Makoba allegedly confessed that she had lost the baby and hidden the body in the toilet.
Court heard that the boyfriend went to inspect the toilet, where he was met with the grim sight of a baby’s hand protruding from a plastic bag.
He alerted Makoba’s employers, as she was working as an in-house nanny at the time, who in turn reported the matter to the police.
Upon arrival, officers found the baby’s body still inside the toilet.
Although a postmortem was conducted to confirm the cause of death, the results proved inconclusive due to the state of decomposition.
However, forensic DNA analysis later confirmed Makoba was the biological mother of the child.
With the matter adjourned to 11 March for mitigation and sentencing, Makobo is due to undergo fingerprinting to establish whether she has any previous criminal record.
Pleading with court for leniency, she revealed her other child is due to undergo surgery soon.
Currently out on bail, Makobo faces up to three years imprisonment if court decides to ignore her cries for mercy.
