New mom arrested after body of infant found near highway

A young woman has been arrested for murder after the body of her newborn baby was discovered next to the N2 in Kwanokuthula last week.

Lindiwe Khiva, 23, is expected to appear in court on Thursday for a formal bail application. 

According to the police, officers were dispatched to the scene next to the N2 highway at about 11am on August 19, where the body of an infant, believed to be about three days old, was found.

“On arrival, they found the little girl who was declared dead by medical personnel on the scene,”  police spokesperson Sergeant Christopher Spies said.

He said further investigation led the police to a nearby hospital, where a woman had given birth a few days earlier. .

“The mother was tracked down to Kwanokuthula and arrested on a murder charge,” Spies said.

During her first appearance in the Plettenberg Bay Magistrate’s Court on Monday, it was revealed that Khiva, a Knysna resident, had given birth to a baby girl in the Knysna Provincial Hospital.

It is alleged she then travelled to Plett to dump the body. The cause of death is not yet known.

Her case was transferred to the Knysna Magistrate’s Court for her to appoint an attorney ahead of a formal bail application.

She remains in custody.

Khiva is the second woman in the broader area to be accused of killing her own child during Women’s Month.

On August 11, a 39-year-old woman from Oudtshoorn was arrested for the alleged murder of her seven-year-old son.

Spies said that at about 11.30am on August 11, Oudtshoorn police were called to the scene in Korhaan Avenue, Bridgeton, where they found the body of the boy in the bedroom.

He said paramedics declared the boy dead on the scene and an inquest docket was opened for further investigation.

“However, a postmortem indicated the young victim had died as a result of strangulation,”  Spies said.

“The docket was changed to a murder docket.”

The woman is due back in court this week.

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