PRETORIA, March 7 (AFP) - A 23-year-old man was arrested early Thursday and accused of raping and sodomising a nine-month-old baby last October, South African police said.
"Evidence has been obtained which positively links the suspect to the crime," national police commissioner Jackie Selebi said in a statement.
"The suspect, originally from the area where the rape was committed, has apparently been working in Vredenburg (in the Western Cape province) over the past few months," the statement said.
In January a court dropped charges against six men suspected of raping the baby, a case which shocked the country into acknowledging there was a widespread problem of child sex abuse.
Selebi said Thursday's arrest in Vredenburg followed an intensive investigation by nine detectives from Upington in the Northern Cape province.
The rape took place in Upington, some 900 kilometres (560 miles) northwest of Cape Town, when the 16-year-old mother allegedly left the baby in the care of the six original suspects to go shopping.
The baby's grandmother reported the rape to the police when she returned home and found the baby covered in blood.
"Let this be a clear warning to those with thoughts of harming a child," Selebi declared.
He said the South African police could not yet elaborate on their evidence against the new suspect since it formed part of the case to be presented against him.
DNA tests made on January 20 showed that only one person raped the baby, nicknamed Baby Tshepang ("Have hope") to protect her identity. Three days earlier, the court withdrew charges against the original six suspects when their DNA tests proved negative.
Baby Tshepang, who was brutally injured in the rape, has been treated in hospital since December and is reportedly "doing well".
She underwent the last in a series of operations to reconstruct her inner organs on Wednesday morning and was expected to be discharged in about 10 days, said hospital spokeswoman Diana Ross.
Police reports show that every day an average 58 children are raped or suffer sexual attacks in South Africa. Children were the victims in 41 percent of all rape and attempted rapes officially notified last year.
One factor is a widespread myth that sex with a virgin will cure you of HIV/AIDS. Some 4.7 million South Africans, or one in nine, were HIV-positive at the end of 2000, and the deadly disease is spreading at a rate of about 1,500 new infections daily.
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