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A FORM Three student at Eveline Girls High School in Bulawayo gave birth at home, secreted the live tot in a satchel and then locked it away in a wardrobe, a court heard recently. The baby was dead by the time it was discovered.

The 17-year-old from Bulawayo’s Nkulumane suburb delivered while she was alone in her room on January 31 this year. The baby was discovered hours later by her elder sister in a satchel tucked away in the wardrobe. The girl’s mother, who was alerted to the shocking find, pronounced the baby dead.

The student appeared before provincial magistrate Willard Maphios Moyo yesterday facing a charge of concealment of birth.

She was not asked to plead and was remanded out of custody to May 7.

Mufaro Mageza, for the State, said the family took the heart-breaking decision of shipping the teenager – who had hidden her pregnancy from her family – to the police. The girl’s court appearance comes just months after a Form Three pupil at Sobhukhazi High gave birth in the school’s toilet and tried to hide the baby.

Her secret was rumbled when her teacher heard cries of a newborn baby and interrogated the pupil when she returned to class. The pupil admitted that she had just given birth.

The Government has expressed concern over the increase in the number of pupils who are engaging in unprotected sex, risking diseases and unplanned early pregnancies. – The Chronicle.