Baby Nyiko Mthimunye’s mother and her boyfriend will return to court on 14 December for the toddler’s murder.
The couple briefly appeared in the Protea Magistrate’s Court in Soweto, Gauteng, on Wednesday.
Initial police reports say she had been raped.
Her mother allegedly only reported the incident to the police two days later.
A Baragwanath Hospital medical practitioner, who attended to the child’s injuries, had already alerted law enforcement authorities to the crime.
Police suspect that baby Nyiko may have suffered previous abuse at the hands of her stepfather and the matter was never reported. – Report by Jozi FM’s Moshe Maswanganyi