Durban - Reunited at last with the baby who was just three days old when he was stolen, a young KwaZulu-Natal mother says she feels she could hold him “for ever”.
The baby, whom Celiwe Qwabe, 19, named Alwande (prosper), was returned to her by police on Wednesday, ending an agonising five-week wait for the Mthunzini woman.
Standing in her worn-out-shoes outside her mother’s bare RDP house on Wednesday, the single mother told the Daily News her only hope was to go back to school next year.
“I may be poor, but I’m not brainless. I’m not the first one to have fallen by the wayside of life, and I’m certainly not the last.
”After this ordeal I’m focusing all my strength in looking at every possible way to get back to school. I bear no hatred or grudge to those who pretended to sympathise with my family.
“But it will surely be difficult to trust people again,” Qwabe said.
At 1am on Wednesday police from the the Empangeni Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit arrested a woman, who has been charged with kidnapping.
She had been at home with her husband and Alwande when police arrived.
The woman, who belonged to the same church as Qwabe and who had been introduced to her as a “social worker”, cannot be named because she has yet to appear in court.
A police source said members of the public alerted the police to the whereabouts of the wanted woman. She was found in her house in the Mkhayideni area, Richards Bay.
“At first the woman denied any knowledge of the baby, but when the police searched her place, the baby was found underneath the blankets.
“She was arrested for kidnapping and will appear in the Mthunzini Magistrate’s Court on Friday,” said the source.
The baby was taken to the NPA Memorial Hospital in Empangeni where he was given a clean bill of health before he was returned to his mother.
Reliving the event that led to her baby’s abduction, Qwabe said: “I had no reason not to trust these women because one of them knows our family very well.
“She knows our impoverished background and her family would assist us regularly with food whenever we asked for something.
“When the so-called ‘social worker’ offered to help with my child’s birth certificate, buy us clothes and lunch, I didn’t suspect any foul play because she is a social worker after all. Helping the needy is what is expected of them,” the teary-eyed mother said, clutching her tiny baby.
Her ordeal started when a relative told her about a “social worker” who wanted to offer her a job as a domestic worker.
Qwabe had been eight months pregnant at the time.
A day before going into labour she received a call from a church member who also told her about the job offer.
Qwabe, however, referred her to her mother who was against the idea.
On May 16 she gave birth and on the 18th, she sent a call-back message to the relative. When the relative called back, she asked him to go and tell her mother she was being discharged.
Instead the relative contacted the lady from church who arrived at the hospital accompanied by the prospective employer and another woman. After failing to talk her into accepting the job, the three women took her home.
A day later the “social worker” called and offered to take mother and child to Home Affairs to get a birth certificate, but on arrival, one of the women went inside and came back saying the office was full.
After doing some shopping for the mother and child, they were taken back home in different cars after the social worker argued that she (Qwabe) was still sore to carry the child.
That was the last time Qwabe saw her baby.
When the Daily News reported on the case, police believed that the suspect was hiding in Durban.
“The Durban police tried to track her down but it became clear that she had led the police off her tracks. As information flooded in we found that she was actually here in Richards Bay,” the source said.
Speaking about the agony she has been through since her baby was taken away on May 19, Qwabe said that because she had not been breast-feeding, her breasts ached and the left one had developed sores.
“I cried until the tears ran dry. These women thought I didn’t deserve to have my baby, to bring him up and love him. I’m aware of my situation and for things to work for my baby I have made a vow to go back to school next year and finish my Grade 12.”
Qwabe’s mother, Lindiwe Ngcobo, fought back tears on Wednesday when she spoke about her grandson’s kidnapping.
She said she was up the entire night when she heard about the kidnapping.
“With all the stories about missing children who are later found mutilated, I prayed for his safe return.
“We had to trust the police and deal with certain people who just laughed whenever they spotted us in the yard. I resolved to stay inside the house not knowing what to expect next. I had difficulty eating and I didn’t know how to help my daughter,” Ngcobo said.
Two other women who have been linked to the kidnapping were arrested last month.
They were released on R1 000 bail each and will appear in the Mthunzini Magistrate’s Court on July 20.
Provincial police spokes-man, Colonel Jay Naicker, confirmed this week’s arrest.
Daily News