A ONE-YEAR-OLD tot has been dug out of a Blair toilet pit – apparently after being thrown in the hole by his cousin.
Incredibly, the 14-month-old was pulled out several hours later still alive after neighbours worked feverishly to get to him.
Police say they are looking for the tot’s mother, Anna Jokoniya, as they investigate claims that she ordered the baby dumping.
The incident happened last Tuesday at Chikanga Farm in Chegutu.
Mashonaland West police spokesman Inspector Clemence Mabgweazara told the Herald newspaper: "We are handling a case in which a one-year-old baby was dumped in a Blair toilet and we are now investigating allegations by a 10-year-old boy that he was instructed by its mother to do it.”
Investigators say Jokoniya, whose age is unknown, is separated from the tot’s father, Dzingai Hwami, although they live in neighbouring plots. She lives with her parents.
Jokoniya is claimed to have sent the 10-year-old boy to Hwami’s home to ask for maize meal. He took the baby boy with him.
On the way back, police say the cousin threw the baby down a pit latrine before returning home and pretending nothing had happened.
The baby’s father arrived at his in-laws’ home less than an hour later and found the child missing. His cousin narrated what had happened earlier, sparking a desperate rescue effort.