A 30-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday after she was caught by her mother apparently trying to strangle her four-month-old baby girl in Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg, police reported.
Captain Nthabiseng Mazibuko said on Sunday the woman was visiting her mother’s house in Sharpeville with her daughter. The grandmother heard the baby crying from another room and then she found her daughter choking the baby.
The baby was bleeding from the nose.
The grandmother and a neighbour wrestled the baby away from the woman and took the baby to a local hospital. She was then transferred to a place of safety.
The grandmother reported the matter to police who arrested the woman and charged her with attempted murder.
”The woman claims she was drunk and had not realised she was choking the baby,” said Mazibuko.
She said a preliminary investigation has established that the woman’s husband was at the couple’s home in Sebokeng at the time of the incident. The woman is expected to appear in the Vereeniging Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday. – Sapa