A 17-year-old girl will appear in the Knysna Magistrates court on Wednesday, September 2 on charges of child neglect and abandonment after allegedly leaving her newborn baby. The child was discovered in the bushes in Knysna on Monday, August 31 at about 2.40pm.

SAPS Captain Malcolm Pojie said: “The abandoned coloured baby girl, estimated to be about a week old, was discovered by a passer-by in the bushes near Green Street, Knysna who brought the baby to the Knysna SAPS Community Service Centre.”

The baby was immediately transferred to the local hospital where she was admitted and is currently receiving medical treatment and nurturing.

Police officers traced the mother down by checking recent births at the Knysna provincial hospital.

“The detectives attached to the George FCS consulted the Knysna Hospital about the admissions in their maternity ward. The information they obtained took them to the town of Plettenberg Bay where they found the 17-year-old mother in New Horizon,” explains Pojie. “She was arrested on the spot and faces charges of child neglect and child abandonment.”

Picture: Pixabay

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