Twice as many children were abandoned in the past year compared to the year before, the Johannesburg Child Welfare centre said.
Thousands of children a year are being abandoned, with the number reaching at least 1 200 in three provinces alone, the Sowetan newspaper reported on Tuesday.
More than 40 children are being dumped in the Free State every month.
Mondli Mvambi, spokesperson for the Department of Social Development, said 477 children were reported abandoned in the past 12 months.
KwaZulu-Natal is also reporting high figures, especially of newborn babies, but only sporadic cases are being reported in Limpopo.
Linda Naidoo, spokesperson for Childline, said more children were being abandoned in KwaZulu-Natal, mainly because of poverty.
”KwaZulu-Natal is one of the poorest provinces in the country and that’s why we have so many such cases. HIV-Aids is another cause because many mothers find themselves unable to cope with the demands of raising an HIV-positive baby,” she said.
Khosi Msibi from the Johannesburg Child Welfare centre said the organisation deals with about 32 cases a month, an increase from last year’s eight.
”We get referrals from the police, hospitals and community members. Chris Hani-Baragwanath and Johannesburg hospitals also refer a lot of cases to us,” she said.
Katimka Pieterse, a social worker at ASM Abba Adoptions in Pretoria, blamed social problem such as unemployment for the rate at which children were being abandoned.
Pieterse said most children were abandoned at hospitals and by immigrant mothers, often because of rape or HIV/Aids.
”Mothers are ashamed to come out and say ‘I was raped, now I have a child’. And the only option they have is to abandon the child,” she said.
She said mothers could take unwanted children to the police or leave them with a nurse at a hospital. – Sapa