Cerise du Plooy
The sewerage works in Kokosi, near Fochville,
were a nightmarish scene on Wednesday morning, 21 July.
The lifeless bodies of two foetuses were found,
presumably flushed down a toilet, by a passer by who alerted the police.
At first it seemed the foetuses were twins, as
it was odd that there were two small bodies found at once, but it was later
confirmed that they were not.
It was also not possible to establish whether
these babies were stillborn or aborted, but what could be established was the
fact that were developed up to between five and six months.
Due to the fact that, at this stage, the lungs
and other parts of the little bodies are not fully developed, it makes them
non-viable, which means that there is a possibility that they may not have lived
after birth, should that have been the case.
The spokesperson for the Department of Health’s
forensic pathology section, Ms. Christina Ngobeni, was contacted in this regard.
The enquiry was handed to a woman at the department by the name of Kanye, who
informed the Herald that only two of the seven questions asked by the paper,
could be answered.
The two questions the Herald asked, that answers
could have been provided for, were ‘how often does this kind of thing happen in
the area’ and also ‘what the cause of death was in both babies.’
After saying that the sex, race etc. was
evidence and could not be disclosed to the media, Kanye did promise to respond
on just those two questions.
By publishing time, however, no response had been received from
anyone at this department, despite the fact that enough time was given by the
Herald.