Durban - Having been admitted to hospital for more than 10 days due to stress after her 3-month-old baby was taken from her arms while she was sleeping, a Mthwalume mother says she wants those responsible for kidnapping her child to be sent to jail.
The mother, 21, said she didn’t believe the doctors in her ward at G J Crooks Hospital when they said her child had just been admitted to the children’s ward after being found by police. “I didn’t think he was ever going to be back in my arms, I didn’t believe the doctors until I saw my baby with my own eyes in the children’s ward,” she said.
She added that her baby, who was taken from her on June 2, had allegedly been kidnapped by her 21-year-old cousin and his girlfriend.
“My cousin and his girlfriend came to visit us, and stayed with us for two weeks. On the day I woke up with my child gone. They, too, had left.”
She said she couldn’t believe that her child had been taken from her by a relative.
“He is okay from what I can tell, and we will be going back to see a doctor at the hospital today. I am just happy that he is with me again,” she said.
“Not having him next to me made me physically sick, knowing that he was out there somewhere and I didn’t know whether he was alive or not.”
She added: “From what I have been told by the police, when my cousin and his girlfriend saw pictures of the baby in the paper, and the fact that he was missing, they took him to Lamontville to the girlfriend’s mother and left him there. When she saw the newspaper, she phoned the police.”
She said not knowing where her child was had been a nightmare.
“I don’t know why they took him and what it is that they wanted to do with him, but they must be severely punished for this, they must rot in jail because they don’t deserve to live freely,” she said.
Police spokesperson Nqobile Gwala confirmed that a 21-year-old suspect had been arrested in uMlazi’s V section after the baby was found in Lamontville, and appeared in the Umzumbe Magistrate’s Court facing a charge of kidnapping.
“The police are still searching for the remaining suspect,” Gwala said.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the suspect should contact Captain Sunil Singh of Port Shepstone FCS Unit at 0825667163 or 039 688 7900, or phone Crime Stop at 08600 10111.