Johannesburg - It was a quick reunion on a road close to Newclare cemetery as baby Revelation was bundled into his mother Khanyisile’s arms on Thursday night.
The baby’s father, Ifeanyi Jones, who had been reunited with his child hours earlier, looked on.
Mother and child were taken back into an unmarked police car and rushed to the Hillbrow community health centre, where he was given a medical examination.
Earlier, Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said the couple who had allegedly abducted Revelation were arrested and the baby found. The baby appeared to be in good spirits and good health.
Picking up the baby at the scene late on Thursday, Khanyisile said: “Thank God my baby is alive.”
Moments earlier, just after news of the baby’s discovery, the father had said: “I am over the moon, I am really happy.”
Khanyisile said her baby had been crying a lot during the journey to the clinic. “He is looking very tired too,” she said.
Dlamini said police found the alleged kidnappers through investigation and from information from the public. They were arrested late on Thursday afternoon near Fordsburg, he said. The couple’s three children were not with them at the time of the arrest.
Dlamini added that they would be appearing in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court within 48 hours on charges of kidnapping and attempted murder.
The desperate parents had refused to give up hope when they had not heard from the alleged kidnappers.
In Bez Valley and Troyeville, pictures of Baby Revelation Jones had stared from shops, spazas and car windows. His eyes were on the scores of flyers his family had posted in the hope it would help their kidnapped baby come home.
When he was snatched after a bloody attack that left Revelation’s nanny for dead, he was wearing a lime-green sweater with a hood and brown trousers.
On Thursday, Dlamini had said that police were working nonstop to break the case. They had released identikits of the two kidnapping suspects, a Pakistani and his wife, who is believed to be seven months pregnant.
They had been tenants in the Joneses’ house since early last month.
The pair had allegedly attacked Revelation’s nanny, Veronica Kanda, on Tuesday morning as they tried to snatch the baby from her.
According to Veronica’s husband Daniel, they had beaten his wife with shoes before throttling her with a rope, leaving her for dead.
The couple have three children, aged between two and six, who allegedly witnessed the attack with the Joneses’ six-year-old daughter.
The family then fled.
Veronica was taken to hospital and is in a serious condition.
A day after the kidnapping, Ifeanyi received a ransom note via SMS. The note said that if he wanted to see his baby again, he would have to pay R100 000.
A shopkeeper in the area said on Thursday the couple had often came to his shop. “The man spoke Urdu. He always appeared to be in a hurry,” said the shopkeeper. He said the man always wore a cap and had longish hair.
They would buy milk, bread and cooldrinks, using small-denomination notes.
The shopkeeper said the wife was South African-born and had only three teeth visible on her bottom jaw. One of the teeth was black, he said.
The family said there had been a report that the husband had been spotted in Bez Valley on Wednesday night.
On Thursday afternoon, Jones said the family had had no further communication with his child’s kidnappers.
The couple moved into the Joneses’ house on December 5.
The husband, who gave his name as Bobby, had told Jones that he had been transferred from Durban.
Later in December, the husband had claimed he didn’t have enough money to pay the rent and asked for more time.
The Joneses’ daughter said she and the couple’s three children hid under a chair during the attack.
When the wife spotted her watching, she grabbed her, pushed a pillow into her face and threw her into her parents’ room.
They locked the front door as they left.
The Star