Manicaland Bureau
A married woman, who was impregnated by her lover and concealed the pregnancy until she gave birth, was arrested for dumping the baby in a Blair toilet to hide the adulterous affair from her husband. Joyline Makuku (28), of Erin Forest Timber Company compound in Nyanga, was however discovered by another resident from the compound, Bomba Kambudzi, who heard the baby crying moments after being dumped.

Kambudzi informed other people who were at a beerhall including Joyline’s husband Phillip Maate. The baby was retrieved from the Blair toilet and Maate identified the skirt that was used to wrap the baby in as that of his wife. Maate quizzed his wife about the skirt and she admitted it was hers. Joyline’s admission prompted her husband to call other women from the compound to examine and ascertain whether she was the one who had given birth to the child or not.

The 28-year-old woman was then found with blood stains, which prompted the husband to report her to the police leading to her arrest. She later appeared before Nyanga magistrates’ court charged with infanticide. Joyline admitted to committing the offence when she appeared before magistrate, Shane Kubonera.

She was, however, spared a jail term after Magistrate Kubonera sentenced her to a wholly suspended four months jail term on condition of good behaviour. State counsel Mrs Anesu Tsikwa had it that on October 17 this year at around 7pm, Stephen Nyakudzunga told Kambudzi that he had heard a baby crying in a toilet while passing his homestead on his way to the beer hall.

The two then teamed up with Joyline’s husband, Phillip Maate, and went to the toilet where they found the baby in the Blair toilet. Magistrate Kubonera heard that the baby had no visible injuries when it was retrieved from the toilet. Joyline’s husband then identified the yellow skirt that was wrapping the baby as that of his wife. Makuku then took the baby to Nyanga police before it was referred to the hospital.

Prosecutor Tsikwa said that it was then that Maate discovered that his wife had been cheating on him and that she had been carrying another man’s baby while they were staying together. The baby died three days after the incident.

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