TSAMBOKHULU- The 16-year-old schoolgirl, who has been accused of throwing an infant into a toilet pit, is now a school drop-out, fearing that she will be an object of ridicule to her class-mates at Lubombo High School. The girl, who hit newspaper headlines from the beginning of this month, appeared at the Tonga Magistrate’s Court some weeks back. She has not been asked to plead on charges of attempted murder and the case was postponed to next month.

The teenager was nabbed for allegedly throwing her baby girl into her neighbour’s pit toilet. She has, meanwhile, publicly apologized for what she had allegedly done after her first court appearance. "I would like to apologize to the entire village for what I did," she said. "I know that I have put my name into disrepute," she agreed.

It was Zandile Mbalane who blew her sister’s cover. She suspected foul play after she allegedly saw Jeyes Fluid and blood stains at her sister’s hut. She informed the community policing forum which then arrested and handed the girl over to the police. The baby was found alive, wrapped in a plastic bag. Police have revealed that the girl had opened a rape case last year after she was allegedly cornered by an unknown man at gun-point.

No suspect has since been arrested though. She claimed that she was sexually assaulted while crossing Tsambokhulu’s illegal border gate (sincanco). "I started to hate my baby while I was still pregnant. It was just because her father had sexually assaulted me and vanished without a trace and now I was left with a reminder," she pointed out the reason for the attempted murder. The girl is said to have given birth unaided.

Residents have named the infant Ncedile after she was retrieved from the pit toilet at about 6:00 am. The teenage mother’s movement around the baby is kept under strict surveillance as there is fear that she may want to complete what she had started. She fears going out from the house because of the incident. Mbuzini police spokesman, Constable Sibusiso Masinga, said they are thoroughly investigating the matter and they hope that more arrests are expected to be made.