A 21-year-old man from Middelplaas, outside Malelane in Mpumalanga, was arrested after allegedly slitting his three-week-old son’s throat.
The baby’s body was found dumped in bushes a few meters from a water reservoir and a diesel depot in Middelplaas.
He was found wrapped in a bloodied blanket and a towel.
His throat was cut open.
According to police spokesperson Selvy Mohlala, the man allegedly snatched the baby boy from his 15-year-old mother on Wednesday.
The man was with four of his friends at the time.
“The worried mother and her family could not report it to the police immediately as they conducted their own search and hoped the baby was safe in his father’s custody,” Mohlala said.
The family reported the child missing on Thursday after their efforts to find him failed.
Mohlala said officers launched a search operation and received information that a child’s lifeless body had been dumped in bushes.
He said: “The investigation was intensified, and information was received that the suspect was at his uncle’s place in KaMaqhekeza, outside Komatipoort, where he arrived with a bag full of clothes. Schoemansdal police did not waste time and did a follow-up.”
The man was found and arrested at his uncle’s house.
He is expected to be charged with kidnapping, murder, and defeating the ends of justice, Mohlala added.
Mohlala said a statutory rape charge would also be added to the charge sheet due to the age of the child’s mother.
The Sexual Offences Act stipulates that the age for legal consent is 16.
The man is expected to appear in the Nkomazi Magistrate’s Court in Tonga soon.
