A 21-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping of a three-day-old child from a health clinic in the eastern part of Johannesburg, the third abduction of an infant in the country in the past month, said police.
Spokesperson Sergeant Patricia Mgijima told TimesLIVE the 31-year-old mother had taken her newborn for a check-up at Margaret Zuma Clinic in the Winnie Mandela section of Tembisa on Monday.
“She wanted to use the toilet, and the suspect – who was in the queue – offered to hold her baby for her,” said Mgijima. But when she returned, the stranger had disappeared with her child.
CCTV footage showed the woman walking out of the clinic with a baby swaddled in a blanket.
By mid-morning on Tuesday, police had traced and arrested her at the nearby Dali Mpofu informal settlement.
Mgijima said according to the suspect, she wanted to claim the child as her own after she miscarried in May, and had been too scared to tell her family and her partner’s family she miscarried.
The baby appeared to be unhurt but is being medically assessed. The woman will appear before the Tembisa Magistrate’s Court shortly.
Last month, two baby abductions were reported to police.
In Durban, a two-week-old baby was found safe after being taken by a 21-year-old woman who had suffered a miscarriage a few weeks before. Private security firm Rusa said she had allegedly hatched the plan “so her boyfriend would not dump her”.
And in Gqeberha, a 22-year-old is on trial after two infants were taken from the neonatal ICU ward at Dora Nginza Hospital. The woman had allegedly previously told her boyfriend she was going to have twins.
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