Alfred Moselakgomo

Alfred Moselakgomo

A couple in Limpopo are in jail for allegedly stabbing their one-year-old child to death with a kitchen knife.

But who exactly stabbed the baby boy is a mystery because the woman blames te man and the man blames the woman.

Riketa Mashiloane, 20, and Elias Madisha, 26, of Doornlaagte in the province's Moutse area were remanded after appearing in the local magistrate court yesterday.

Police said the couple was arrested after their baby was stabbed to death but they are not certain yet who killed the infant.

Police spokesman Superintendent Jackson Tlemo said: "The woman tells us that the man did it while Madisha insists that Mashiloane did it."

Tlemo said Madisha was arrested first after Mashiloane claimed that he had killed the baby. She also told the police that Madisha was not the baby's biological father.

It is understood that before she met Madisha, Mashiloane had ended her relationship with her baby's biological father. She and the baby later moved in with Madisha in his home.

"Mashiloane told us that Madisha said the baby was not his flesh and blood before taking out a knife and stabbing the child in the neck," Tlemo said.

He said yesterday that after the baby was stabbed Mashiloane wrapped the tiny body in a towel and carried it to her parents' home with blood still dripping from the baby.

"Shocked by what they saw, relatives called the police," Tlemo said. "When we arrived, Mashiloane said her boyfriend had stabbed the baby.

"A few minutes after his arrest Madisha told us that Mashiloane had stabbed the baby because she did not want to lose him and decided to kill it."

The police could not confirm if Madisha had any children but said the dead baby was Mashiloane's only child.

A neighbour, who spoke to Sowetan on condition of anonymity, said when the baby was alive he had shown signs of extreme malnutrition and neglect.

The case was postponed to September 15.