“Don’t hurt my baby. Please don’t hurt my baby.” This was the emotional appeal by a Pretoria nurse to her infant child’s nanny, who allegedly kidnapped the six-month-old boy while his mother lay asleep next to his cot on Monday.
Standing outside her modest home, Mita Marobe, 33, fought back tears as she described waking up to find Kgosietsile, her only child, missing.
The kidnapping, thought to be over a wage dispute, is believed to have been carefully orchestrated with the nanny apparently spending weeks in planning.
The plan is believed to have had the 21-year-old Zimbabwean woman erasing photos and videos of herself with Kgosietsile from the family’s cellphones and a laptop computer; taking back copies of her asylum papers from the Marobe family on the pretence of having to update them; and destroying documents which could lead police to her whereabouts.
The woman, who had worked for the family since November, allegedly told Kgosietsile’s young niece on Sunday night that she was going to kidnap the boy – a threat police believe was aimed at getting the family to settle the wage dispute.
In the final part of the plan, the suspect is believed to have turned off Marobe’s cellphone alarm on Monday morning before locking her and other family members inside the house to ensure that they could not follow her.
Hours after the alleged kidnapping, the nanny – who allegedly also stole R5 000, Marobe’s cellphone and her bank cards – SMSed the distraught mother. She demanded R45 000 in cash, the PIN to her bank cards and ordered her not to involve the police if she wanted to see her son alive again.
Now, as the family appeals for the safe return of Kgosietsile his father has vowed to do everything in his power to find his son alive.
“I will not let her get away with this. In my country this does not happen. In my country no one would dare snatch a baby from his mother,” said Kgosietsile’s father, Jacob Gavua, a Ghanaian national.
Fighting back her emotions, Marobe, said she feared for her young son’s life.
“She took nothing for him. No food, no extra clothes, nothing except what he was wearing.
“She has money, but now she says she desperately needs the PIN for my bank cards so she could buy him food.
“She wants us to think she still has him to get us to give her more money, but I am petrified that she has already dumped him and left him for dead,” said Marobe.
Marobe, who teaches at the Pretoria Nursing College, said they were not rich.
“Look where we live. We don’t have lots of furniture or fancy cars. I am a nurse and my husband is a hairstylist. We don’t have this money. If I had it I would give it. I would give her anything just to get my baby back,” she said.
Marobe said they were trying everything in their power to raise the ransom money.
Marobe said she had been asleep when she woke up to find Kgosietsile missing from his cot.
“I was not worried because I thought his nanny might have taken him to feed or was playing with him. I walked to my sister’s room, but he was not there.
“My sister said the nanny had come in to wake her to take her children to school but she said she was sleeping late.”
Searching the rest of the house, Marobe discovered that she had been locked in and that Kgosietsile, his nanny and her handbag were missing.
“I began screaming. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do.”
Alerting neighbours, Marobe was eventually freed by a caretaker who helped her to call police and her husband.
In an emotional message to her son and his nanny, Marobe pleaded for his safe return. “I love you my little one. I love you so much. You will soon be back home.”
Asked about the wage dispute allegations, Marobe who said they met the nanny through a domestic worker agency, and claimed to have paid her on Friday.
“She went home for the weekend and came back on Sunday. She never said anything about being unhappy before she left or when she came back.
“I never thought she could do this. She was part of the family. Kgosietsile loves her and I always thought she loved him.
“Why would she do this? What has he done to her? Why would she want to hurt my baby?” Marobe asked.
Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Annerie Robinson, said a case of kidnapping and extortion had been opened.
“We are following up on a number of leads and are working with the ‘agency’ who put the family in contact with the nanny.
“We have interviewed a number of people, including her boyfriend, and are confident of making a breakthrough soon,” she said.
She declined to elaborate on the investigation, for fear of jeopardising the case.
Robinson said they were looking for a Linette Moyo, who they believed could help them with their investigation. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Kgosietsile, his nanny or Moyo can contact Crime Stop on 08600 10111. - Pretoria News