Cape Town - An adoption advert by a 24-year-old Cape Town woman who wanted to sell her baby on a classified advertising website has prompted Social Development MEC Albert Fritz to warn the public that this practice is illegal.
The advert on Gumtree last Wednesday described the woman as a “beautiful black woman aged 24 and two months pregnant” who would like to give the baby up for adoption due to “financial reasons” and “school commitment”.
It called for interested parties to contact her for the price. By Tuesday the advert had been removed and the woman, from Kuils River, could not be tracked down.
“This is the first case like this that we have picked up on Gumtree. A few days ago we saw another advert for people wanting to adopt a child.”
Fritz said anyone caught trying to buy or sell a child online would be “immediately prosecuted. The Children’s Act is very clear on this”.
Gumtree has a list of items not allowed to be sold on the website. “We do not accept ads selling body parts/ bodily fluids, adoption or surrogacy anywhere on the site,” it said.
It added that it was the responsibility of the advertiser to ensure that the content advertised adhered to its posting policies and applicable laws.
Fritz urged people who wanted to put their children up for adoption to approach his department for assistance.
Penny Whitaker, manager at Child Welfare in Wynberg, said: “We are not going to judge them.” She said parents had three placement options:
* Temporary safe-carers: people trained to look after a child temporarily while Child Welfare investigates circumstances around the adoption.
* Foster care: in cases where an adoption matter has to go to court, Child Welfare will place the child in foster care while giving the biological parents the option to visit.
* When a child is orphaned, abandoned or parents want to give the child up for adoption: in this case the permanent custodianship of the child was given to someone else and the parents agreed to give up permanent rights to the child.
Whitaker said that under the third option, the Children’s Act allowed parents a 60-day period in which to change their mind about the adoption.
Cape Argus