News / Africa
Zimbabwean woman pleads for help in finding baby in South Africa
31 May 2013 at 10:11hrs | Views
Johannesburg - As the government and NGOs raise awareness about the rights of children during Child Protection Week, one mother is desperately searching for her four-month-old daughter.
Charity Moyo, 21, believes the woman she suspects of kidnapping her baby, Thandeka, might have fled the country.
Moyo is pleading with South African and Zimbabwean authorities to track down the woman, who she knows only as Thembi.
And as Child Protection Week winds down, Moyo is not the only mother to have experienced this anguish recently.
The number of babies kidnapped from their mothers in and around Joburg in the past two months has escalated.
Nearly two weeks ago, baby Blessing was only a day old when he was snatched from his mother in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni.
Two weeks later, his alleged kidnapper, Tsepo Bertha Lebaka, stood before a Tembisa magistrate after a tip-off led to her arrest.
The baby has since been reunited with his mother, Mercy Mabasa.
On Thursday, Moyo said she suspected her daughter might be in Zimbabwe, as the suspect is a Zimbabwean national.
Moyo and Thembi were friends and church mates at the Universal Church in Yeoville.
The incident took place on May 4 when Moyo boarded a taxi and found Thembi inside the vehicle.
The two alighted at Loveday Street, from where Moyo accompanied Thembi to her boyfriend's flat on the corner of Loveday and Marshall streets. Moyo said Thembi needed money from her boyfriend for her child.
"She sent me to her boyfriend's flat, saying the man was living with another woman. She told me she would fight with the woman if she went to the flat herself," the mother said.
"Because I was about to use the stairs to the flat, Thembi requested that I leave my daughter with her as it would be tiring for me carrying the baby. I left her at the ground floor with my baby."
When Moyo got to the fifth floor, she knocked on the flat where Thembi said her boyfriend lived, but there was no response.
Moyo said that when got back to the ground floor, Thembi and Thandeka were nowhere to be seen.
She called Thembi minutes later, but her phone was answered by a man.
"The man said he knew Thembi, but wasn't aware that she had stolen the child," Moyo said.
She added that at the time of the incident, Thembi looked pregnant, but she thinks she might have faked it.
Moyo said Thembi had not shown up at church and her phone has remained off.
"It is painful to have your child missing. I can't sleep or think straight. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night thinking that my daughter is crying," said Moyo.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Xoli Mbele said a case of kidnapping had been opened.
He pleaded to mothers to be careful when leaving their children with strangers, or even with friends.
Charity Moyo, 21, believes the woman she suspects of kidnapping her baby, Thandeka, might have fled the country.
Moyo is pleading with South African and Zimbabwean authorities to track down the woman, who she knows only as Thembi.
And as Child Protection Week winds down, Moyo is not the only mother to have experienced this anguish recently.
The number of babies kidnapped from their mothers in and around Joburg in the past two months has escalated.
Nearly two weeks ago, baby Blessing was only a day old when he was snatched from his mother in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni.
Two weeks later, his alleged kidnapper, Tsepo Bertha Lebaka, stood before a Tembisa magistrate after a tip-off led to her arrest.
The baby has since been reunited with his mother, Mercy Mabasa.
On Thursday, Moyo said she suspected her daughter might be in Zimbabwe, as the suspect is a Zimbabwean national.
Moyo and Thembi were friends and church mates at the Universal Church in Yeoville.
The incident took place on May 4 when Moyo boarded a taxi and found Thembi inside the vehicle.
"She sent me to her boyfriend's flat, saying the man was living with another woman. She told me she would fight with the woman if she went to the flat herself," the mother said.
"Because I was about to use the stairs to the flat, Thembi requested that I leave my daughter with her as it would be tiring for me carrying the baby. I left her at the ground floor with my baby."
When Moyo got to the fifth floor, she knocked on the flat where Thembi said her boyfriend lived, but there was no response.
Moyo said that when got back to the ground floor, Thembi and Thandeka were nowhere to be seen.
She called Thembi minutes later, but her phone was answered by a man.
"The man said he knew Thembi, but wasn't aware that she had stolen the child," Moyo said.
She added that at the time of the incident, Thembi looked pregnant, but she thinks she might have faked it.
Moyo said Thembi had not shown up at church and her phone has remained off.
"It is painful to have your child missing. I can't sleep or think straight. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night thinking that my daughter is crying," said Moyo.
Police spokesman Warrant Officer Xoli Mbele said a case of kidnapping had been opened.
He pleaded to mothers to be careful when leaving their children with strangers, or even with friends.
Source - The Star
