A woman has been arrested after the body of her newborn baby was found dumped in the bushes in KwaMashu, north of Durban in Kwa Zulu Natal. It's alleged that the 28-year-old woman strangled her baby before dumping her body.

It's alleged that the neighbours became suspicious after they realised that the woman, who was visibly expectant no longer had a pregnancy bump, but there were no signs of the baby. A neighbour who asked not to be named told ZiMoja that they were alerted that the woman was back from the hospital where she gave birth and they decided to visit her to welcome her newborn. "To our surprise, the baby was not there and she kept on telling us that the child was asleep and that is when we demanded to see the baby. She then changed the story and it didn't make sense at all," the neighbour said.

The neighbour said that the woman gave birth last week Thursday and that the baby's body was discovered on Saturday. A neighbour alleges that the mother who has since been arrested told them that she had to get rid of the baby to save her relationship as she conceived after a one-night stand. "She confirmed to me that she decided to kill her newborn baby to save her relationship with her current boyfriend. She told us that she wanted to keep her boyfriend and he was not going to forgive her for falling pregnant with another man's child," another neighbour said. According to the neighbours, the mother confessed to strangling the baby before getting rid of the body. "She claimed she did everything she did all in the name of love. Which mother loves their boyfriend more than their own child, this is really shocking," said the neighbour. The woman was rescued by cops as the angry community members from the same area wanted to beat her. SAPS KZN spokesperson Constable Thenjiswa Ngcobo confirmed the incident. "KwaMashu police have arrested a woman for allegedly killing her newborn baby on 17 August 2023. The police responded to reports of murder in the Siyanda area on 20 August 2023, where they were alerted about a woman who gave birth to a child and strangled the baby to death before throwing the lifeless body at a nearby bush. The 28-year-old mother will appear before court soon," Ngcobo said.