Sibongile Mashaba

Sibongile Mashaba

A 28-year-old woman who allegedly dumped her fiveday-old son in a toilet at a Soweto mall three months ago appeared briefly in the Protea magistrates' court yesterday.

Lindiwe Nhlanhla of the Motswaledi informal settlement near Orlando Power Park is facing charges of child abandonment.

Wearing white trousers, a black shirt and red jacket, Nhlanhla looked tired and sat quietly until she was called to the dock.

She was not asked to plead to charges of abandoning her son at Maponya Mall in Klipspruit.

Nhlanhla is being held at Johannesburg Prison.

"I am still at the hospital section and have been receiving treatment," she told magistrate Christine Sethusha.

Sethusha postponed the case to May 21 for further investigation.

Nhlanhla was arrested at the Bara Taxi Rank in Soweto three weeks after her baby was found at the biggest mall in Soweto.

She told officers she dumped the baby after his father left her.

The baby was discovered in a toilet by security guards who noticed movement in the bowl on their closed circuit TV monitors.