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Baby fell into traffic - dad
10/11/2004 16:43 - (SA)
Johannesburg - A 25-year-old father told Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday his baby daughter "slipped from his grasp" and fell from a highway bridge into oncoming traffic.
McDonald Ntsala pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder after his 13-month-old daughter, Tshegofatso Mofolo, fell to her death in July last year from a bridge in Soweto.
In a written plea explanation Ntsala told the court he was "unhappy" when he returned home on July 19 last year to find his daughter "in a dirty condition".
He said he had tried to find the girl's mother, but he "could not find her anywhere".
He decided to take the child to a park and took a short-cut through a network of highways. He tried to cross an overhead highway facing the oncoming traffic.
"I didn't keep a proper look-out and was nearly bumped by a truck.
"I took two or three steps backwards," he said.
Ntsala fell on his side and the child "slipped and fell on to the highway below".
He went down to see what had happened to the child and a passerby gave him and the child a lift to the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital.
When he handed the child to a nurse at the hospital, he realised the baby was dead.
The trial continues.
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