Cape Town – Judge President John Hlophe recalled a state witness on Monday in the trial against a woman accused of kidnapping Zephany Nurse as a baby from a Cape Town hospital 19 years ago.
State witness Gertrude Hanslo was a registered nurse at Groote Schuur hospital in April 1997, when baby Zephany was snatched from her mother’s bedside at just three days old.
Earlier in the trial, Hanslo testified that she remembered seeing a woman dressed in maroon pants and a cream top near the lift when she was leaving for home on April 30, 1997.
Hlophe wanted to know on Monday if Hanslo could identify that woman in the courtroom.
But she said that after almost twenty years, she couldn’t remember.
She told the court that the woman was dressed in the colours of the nursing staff uniforms at that time, but she believed she was a visitor as she had seen her during visiting hours and she had chatted to one of the patients in the ward.
The Lavender Hill woman on trial, who can’t be identified to protect the identity of Nurse who now has another name, claimed she was given the baby girl on April 30, 1997 by a woman.
She told the Western Cape High Court earlier on Monday that she miscarried her own baby in December 1996, and kept this secret from her partner and siblings.
A woman she met at Tygerberg hospital who introduced herself as Sylvia offered to help her with either fertility treatment or an adoption process.
She told the court she paid Sylvia an R800 deposit, and was told that the total cost was R3,000.
She was given five tablets, and she believed she would fall pregnant after her miscarriage, but when she didn’t she decided to opt for adoption.
Prosecutor Evadne Kortje asked her: “Since when in South Africa do you pay for a baby?”
But the accused insisted Sylvia was very “convincing” and she believed the adoption process was legitimate.
She told the court that Sylvia had told her there were many young mothers who didn’t want their babies.
A week before she was given Zephany, she testifed that Sylvia had called her to say a young woman wanted to give up her child.
“I asked her if I could be present for the birth, I wanted to meet the mother,” she told the court.
On April 30, 1997, she arranged to meet Sylvia at the Wynberg train station where she waited for her for 45 minutes.
A stranger arrived and asked the accused if she was waiting for Sylvia. When she said she was, the stranger handed her a newborn baby and told her to take it to Retreat hospital and phone Sylvia from there.
Kortje said: “That doesn’t happen everyday, a baby given to you out of the blue”.
The accused responded “I was also a bit confused at that time.”
She told the court she had been expecting to go through adoption papers, and had not expected to be given a baby that day.
When asked why she didn’t go to the police, she replied: “No, then they lock me up for a baby.”
She admitted that her family did not know she was trying to adopt a baby.
Earlier, the accused admitted that she had lied to her partner and family when she didn’t tell them she miscarried in December 1996, and allowed them to continue believing she was pregnant.
She told the court that she took the baby to Retreat hospital as instructed and called Sylvia who told her she would sort out the adoption papers.
She then contacted a neighbour “Aunty Mary” who fetched her from the hospital.
The 85-year-old Mary Lewis had testified earlier in the trial that she had never fetched the accused and a newborn baby from Retreat hospital.
When Judge President John Hlophe reminded the accused of this, she insisted that Aunty Mary had dropped her at home that day.
The public gallery was packed with members of the Nurse family, many of whom were wearing specially designed red t-shirts.
The words “If God is for us who can be against us” were emblazoned on the back on the t-shirts, as well as “Justice will prevail”.
Nurse was abducted from her mother’s bedside at Groote Schuur hospital almost two decades ago and only a twist of fate led to the discovery of her real identity.
The discovery was made in February last year when her biological sister started high school at the same school as her.
Classmates noticed their striking resemblance, and when the younger sister told her father, Morne Nurse, he began his own investigation.
His suspicions that the matric teenager was his long lost daughter were confirmed when the Hawks investigated, and DNA tests confirmed that she was the biological daughter of Celeste and Morne Nurse.
The accused has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, fraud and contravention of the Children’s Act. She is currently out on bail of R5 000.
Cross examination of the accused is expected to continue on Tuesday.
African News Agency
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