WINDHOEK – The Katutura Magistrate’s Court yesterday granted a final remand to the police to conclude their investigations in the case of a teenage girl who was arrested for allegedly dumping her lifeless baby at Greenwell Matongo last year.
Should the police not conclude their investigations into the matter, the court will be forced to provisionally withdraw the case against 18-year-old Feliscia Ndevapewa Ruben. Consequently, magistrate Namwenyo Shikalepo postponed the matter finally to January 24 for the police to conclude their investigations.
Ruben, who has been urged by the court to attain legal representation, is currently being charged with a count of concealment of birth for the death of her infant on 7 June 2019.
According to police reports at the time, Ruben allegedly gave birth alone in her shack and dumped the baby a few meters in front of the shack.
It is suspected that the baby hit its head on the concrete floor during birth as the police found bloodspots in the one-bedroom shack that she shares with her uncle and two siblings.
It is suspected that the teenager gave birth by herself after her uncle went to work and her siblings were at school.
It is further alleged that after giving birth, Ruben soaked the bloody blanket in the water outside the shack in the process of cleaning up the bloody room. This according to the police, Ruben did in an attempt to conceal what she had done.
The teenage girl allegedly arrived in Namibia in May 2019 from Onehoni village in Angola and the family was unaware that she was pregnant.
On the day of her arrest, the police had to whisk Ruben away from an angry mob that wanted to beat her up for what she had allegedly done. The mob wanted to break into the shack in which Ruben was hiding for her safety.
Ruben is currently on N$1 000 bail, which was extended until her return in court as scheduled.