Police in Karasburg have arrested a couple, aged 25 and 28, in connection with the murder of their three-month-old baby. 

Their arrest follows the discovery of the child's body in a shallow grave at the resettlement farm Swartberg near Karasburg in ||Kharas Region.

||Kharas Police Crime Investigations Coordinator, Deputy Commissioner Nikodemus Mbango, confirmed the couple's arrest.

According to him, the couple told police that their baby became ill in November of last year and that they treated the child with traditional remedies.

The traditional medicine, the couple told police, may have caused their child's death.

Deputy Commissioner Mbango says the couple buried their baby in a shallow grave in the veld at the resettlement farm Swartberg, where they are employed.
 
"They took this child to the field in order to administer traditional medicine, while they were there, the baby died, and they decided not to take or give this information to anyone, but rather to bury the child. So whoever is going to ask them what happened to the child, decided to agree and say they sent the child to the north. Someone overheard them telling their parents in the north, I believe the day after yesterday, that they were with the baby at the farm. Now this has developed some suspicion, how can they say they are with the baby while telling the colleagues at the farm the child was taken to the north?"

The couple is expected to appear in the Karasburg Magistrate's Court tomorrow.

This is the second murder that has sent shock waves across the ||Kharas Region. 

Last week, police arrested a 35-year-old mother after she allegedly killed her 1-year-old baby at Bucholzbrumm Farm near Bethanie.

The mother, a former police officer, was set to appear in court today.

"According to information, she went missing from Swakopmund, and this information was not reported to the police; it was just reported to some social media. Police were not aware that this person went missing. And how she found her way into ||Kharas, we don't know. We were just given a tip-off from a farmer who spotted her on his farm; she actually went to ask for water at his residence, and after he gave it to her, he was now keeping an eye on her, so he sent one of his workers to check what she was doing, and this is when this shallow grave was discovered and the police were informed."

Mbango says an autopsy report shows the one-year-old had fifteen stab wounds on his body, which had been inflicted with a sharp object.

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Luqman Cloete