Police spokeswoman, Sergeant Noloyiso Rwexana, said officers were informed by workers at a health facility near Kensington of a toddler who died after being brought in with serious injuries to the head and body. as the country continues to grapple with violence against women and children.
“The child’s 26-year-old stepfather was arrested and his 30-year-old mother taken in for questioning,” said Rwexana.
The suspect was due to appear in the Cape Town Magistrates' Court once charged.
Other recent child murders include three-year-old Courtney Pieters who was found in a shallow grave nine days after she went missing on May 4 in Elsies River. Three days later, the body of four-year-old Iyapha Yamile was found stuffed in a plastic bag on May 1 in Khayelitsha.
Five days after Iyapha's murder, 25-year-old Ntuthuzelo Mayekiso was arrested for the murder of fourteen-month-old Lindokuhle Kota in Khayelitsha. And on 4 June Strand residents searching for missing five-year-old Minentle Lekhakha made the grim discovery of her lifeless body – her eyes reportedly gouged out.