A Cape Town mother’s heart aches for the day she will be reunited with her one-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.
Her husband, Bangladeshi businessman Riad Aminul Islam, absconded with the children after he told her he was taking their children to visit his parents in Bangladesh.
The family were in Malawi at the time. They had moved to the south-eastern African country after Islam was kidnapped and held for R5 million ransom last year.
Chelsea Whittaker said she was married to her husband for eight years. The family moved to Malawi in a panic a few months after Islam’s kidnapping in October last year because he feared living in Cape Town.
Now the 25-year-old mother has not seen her children since her husband persuaded her to return to Cape Town on her own in September while he and the children travelled to Bangladesh.
“I haven't had a proper night's rest because all I do is wonder if they call out for me? I worry if they are safe, warm and fed, are they happy, do they remember me, I can’t deal with this,” she sobbed.
Islam was allegedly held up by a gunman who robbed his store and later abducted him. He managed to escaped two weeks later and returned home.
After his ordeal, he suggested the family move to Malawi.
“We lived there for about seven months, and then in September Riad said we were going to move back to South Africa because there was not a lot of opportunity (for work) in Malawi,” explained Whittaker.
She said Islam then told her that he would be taking the kids to meet his parents in Bangladesh, and at first she said no. But after he showed her the travel tickets that he purchased for their return to South Africa, she agreed.
“I agreed because he was the one who was always providing and looking after us, he always played his role so well,” said Whittaker.
Whittaker then boarded a bus which Islam paid for and made her way to Cape Town.
“My feet hardly even touched the ground, when I got a message from him saying I would never see my children again.
“All types of things went through my mind, what did he mean by this? He told me that they would be joining me in Cape Town after they visited their grandparents,” she said.
Whittaker said had she known that the day she boarded the bus would be the last time she saw her kids, she wouldn't have gone through with it.
“Since that day he would call from different numbers, sometimes South African numbers, other times Malawian and Bangladeshi numbers. They are good with phones. But every time he called he refused to let me speak to the kids, he would tell me that he told them that I died.
“I would hear them in the background … it feels like torture,” Whittaker said.
She managed to obtain money to travel to Malawi to find her children. But she received a message from Islam stating that he was no longer in Malawi.
“All I want is to see them, but I don’t even know where they are.
“I am missing important milestones in their lives. He tells me that the one-year-old is sick, and that's obvious because she was still breastfeeding. Why would someone do something like this?
“Please help me, anybody, help me get my children back,” Whittaker pleaded.
Whittaker approached Janine Passenz, founder of the Survivors Haven Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports victims of gender-based violence.
Passenz said when she learnt of the incident she immediately reached out to Parliament to see if they could intervene, but she was still waiting for feedback.
“I would like to send out a message to young South African females to be careful in relationships with foreign (nationals).
“Not all foreigners are bad but we have too many incidents where marriage takes place, just so that they can open a business under her name. When they disappear, they leave the wife to manage the shops.
“The saddest part is when they take the children away from the mother,” she said.
Candice van der Rheede, founder of Western Cape Missing Persons Unit, said parents should also equip themselves with the knowledge of the law where their children were concerned.
“A biological parent cannot kidnap his or her own child unless he or she is going against a court order or is taking a child without the other’s consent to another country.
“The only thing they can be found guilty of is going against the other parent's parental rights,” she said.
Van der Rheede explained that every parent has the right to care for the child, and to maintain contact with the child.
“Parenting plans are also very important, that is why I always advise parents to apply for a plan at a local social development office, so that there can be strict rules put into place.
Esther Lewis, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Development said their Atlantis office would offer trauma counselling to the mother.
Simon Dippenaar from Simon Dippenaar and Associates explained that South Africa incorporated the Hague Convention into the Children's Act to deal with matters of a child being taken overseas without a parent’s consent.
The convention provides protocols for international child abduction cases. This includes:
* An application to the Hague Convention where the matter will be heard in a high court in cases where children are under the age of 16.
* If the country where the child is found to be is a member of the convention, the country must cooperate in locating the child.
* Evidence must be provided to the court that the child was wrongfully removed.
“If your child has been removed to a non-signatory state, you will need to obtain an order through normal civil procedures declaring the abduction of the child unlawful and in breach of your parental rights,” said Dippenaar.
“ You then have to obtain a mirror order in the foreign country.
“Unfortunately, this may be time-consuming and is likely to be an expensive process. You will need the assistance of experienced family law attorneys,” he said.
Police spokesperson, Warrant Officer Joseph Swartbooi said Atlantis SAPS was investigating a case of kidnapping.
Attempts to reach Islam for comment were unsuccessful.
Weekend Argus