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Tanaka Mrewa Court Reporter
A WOMAN from Bulawayo who recently cut her new born baby’s throat told a court she killed the tot because she had cheated on her boyfriend and got impregnated by a married man.

Alaika Dube (21) from Mpopoma suburb allegedly slit her baby’s throat with a kitchen knife, wrapped it in a plastic bag and placed it in a suitcase.

She had been co-habiting with her boyfriend Nyasha Muchingambi (30) since May this year at Western Commonage Hostels where she committed the offence.

Dube told Western Commonage magistrate Miss Tancy Dube that Muchingambi was not the baby’s father.

“My boyfriend was not the baby’s father. I had been impregnated by a married man,” Dube said.

Magistrate Dube did not ask her to plead and remanded her in custody to today.

Prosecuting, Ms Magret Takawira told the court that on July 16 at around 5AM, Dube gave birth to a mature baby boy.

“The accused person slit the baby’s throat with a knife, wrapped the body in a plastic bag and hid it in a suitcase. When her boyfriend woke up he saw a pool of blood and the accused person said she had a miscarriage,” she said.

Ms Takawira said Machingambi called an ambulance.

“A medical report from the doctor who attended the accused proved that the accused had given birth to a mature baby. The matter was reported to the police leading to the arrest of the accused,” she said.

In his statement read out in court, Muchingambi said Dube kept getting out of bed throughout the night.

“Around 5AM, she told me that she wanted to relieve herself but wanted to use a bucket. Although I was half awake I still recall hearing a brief cry of a baby. When I asked her about it she said she didn’t hear the sound,” read the statement.

He added: “I dashed to the police station and told them that my girlfriend had suffered a miscarriage. When the ambulance got home she was scrubbing the blood from the floor. In the bucket there was an umbilical cord and the technicians told me to follow with it to the hospital.”

Machingambi said doctors proved that a baby had been delivered.

“The doctor who inspected the rest of the remains in the bucket proved that it was placenta and said that a baby must have been delivered. I then recalled that I had heard a baby cry. I went back and informed the police at Western Commonage and we went together to search at my place. That’s when we found the baby in the plastic bag.”