Teen baby killer jailed

Baby Aphiwe reached out thinking it was playtime - instead her teenage mother stabbed the seven-month-old to death.

"I can't comprehend how a right-thinking person takes a weapon and stabs a baby," Pietermaritzburg judge Thoba Poyo-Dlwati said yesterday.

But 18-year-old Nompumelelo Nyati believed that killing her baby was the only option.

In her written plea, the Grade 10 Paulpietersburg schoolgirl said she was too poor to care for the child on her own after the father and his family refused to help her.

Nyati's child state grant of R300 came to an end in February.

She was sleeping in her paternal grandmother's kitchen after her mother kicked her out of the family home when she fell pregnant.

Her grandmother did not speak to her because she could not contribute to the household. She ate at a friend's house.

On May 2 she went to the baby's father and his family again and asked them to keep the baby, but they turned her away.

When she arrived home, she placed the baby on the ground.

"I stabbed Aphiwe once in the chest. She cried."

She then went to neighbours to report what she had done.

Poyo-Dlwati said killing a defenceless baby was unforgivable.

"Parents are supposed to protect and love their children," she said.

"You could have taken the child to social workers."

Poyo-Dlwati said while the correctional services report painted a bleak and unfortunate picture of poverty, divorced parents and abuse by a stepmother, many other teenagers who have grown up with similar circumstances made something out of their lives.

She sentenced Nyati to an effective six years in prison.

"One hopes that you will use this time to reconstruct your life and pick up the pieces to start afresh. But this act will always haunt you and that alone is a life punishment,' she said.

Youth for Survival founder Moshy Mathe said she had never heard of a teenage mother killing a baby older than a month and speculated that Nyati might have a mental disorder.

The NGO offers support groups to parents who reject their pregnant daughters. The Health Department said 94000 schoolgirls in South Africa fell pregnant in 2011.