Pretoria - Police in Gauteng have arrested two suspects for concealment of birth after a woman who was seven months pregnant was assisted to have an abortion in a flat along Albert Street, Johannesburg.
Captain Xoli Mbele, spokesperson for the South African Police Service (SAPS) in Johannesburg central, said the 20-year-old mother has been arrested together with a Ugandan national who is allegedly a bogus doctor, who assisted her.
“It is alleged that the female [expectant mother] and her boyfriend visited a flat at Albert Street on the 21st of April 2022 at 10am. They paid R3 000 and an abortion was conducted by a suspect and his accomplice bogus female nurse who is still at large,” Mbele explained.
After the abortion in the residential unit, Mbele said the 20-year-old lied to her mother that she had had a miscarriage.
“The pregnant female told her mother that she had a miscarriage at Alexandra Clinic. Her aunt took her the following day to the clinic to collect a foetus for burial. She [the aunt] then discovered that she had not gone to the clinic,” said Mbele.
“She told her aunt what had really happened and she was transferred to Edenvale Hospital for medical reasons. Police were contacted and they took her to point out the crime scene.”
The bogus doctor was apprehended but his accomplice, allegedly a bogus nurse and who took the foetus, is still at large.
Mbele said police investigations were continuing and the arrested duo were scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
Meanwhile, Johannesburg central station commander, Brigadier Ivan Perumal has commended the “swift response” by the police.
Perumal also urged pregnant women to avoid risking their lives by terminating pregnancies at unregistered places.
IOL