A nine-year-old girl is currently admitted at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) as she is 33 weeks pregnant and is expected to give birth at any moment at the institution.
The minor is being monitored by a team of specialist doctors and nurses owing to the delicate nature of her pregnancy.
Reports have indicated that the girl(name withheld) is from Tsholotsho District in Matabeleland North Province.
Officials from the Department of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare are currently investigating the circumstances leading to the pregnancy.
Sources close to the issue have claimed she could be a rape victim, abused by a person “close to the family” and the police are currently investigating the matter.
A Sunday News crew last week visited UBH and spoke to the acting chief executive officer, Dr Harrison Rambanapasi, who confirmed the matter but could not share finer details due to patient-doctor confidentiality.
The doctor however said the minor conceived when she was eight years old, which was made possible by a rare condition of precocious puberty (development of sexual maturation earlier than the normal age).
Dr Rambanapasi said ordinarily puberty should start at 11 years.
The incident comes a few weeks after a 13-year-old girl from Mkhosana Township in Victoria Falls wrote part of her Zimsec grade seven examinations on a hospital bed soon after giving birth at Victoria Falls Hospital. In the Victoria Falls case, the girl was not aware that she was pregnant until a month before giving birth.
THE SUNDAY NEWS
