The three-week-old baby boy snatched by a woman pretending to be a social worker has been reunited with his mother.
|||The three-week-old baby boy snatched by a woman pretending to be a social worker has been reunited with his mother, say police.
And a 30-year-old suspect was arrested at her mother’s home in Khayelitsha where police found her hiding in a wardrobe holding the missing baby, Asenathi.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said two Khayelitsha policemen, Warrant Officer Andries Smit and Constable Siphiwe Siweya, had worked around the clock to find the missing baby.
Van Wyk said the officers had tracked down a cellphone used by the suspect. They pretended to be bank officials and obtained her address in Mfuleni.
“On their arrival they found the husband of the suspect, who told them that his wife was pregnant and went to hospital to have the baby today.
“At the time, the suspect called her husband and told him that she was at her mother’s house.”
Van Wyk said the officers had gone to the address and after questioning the mother of the suspect and searching the house, they found a woman hiding in a wardrobe, holding the baby.
“It was confirmed that it was in fact the missing baby, Asenathi Magoda, and they arrested the suspect on charges of abduction. She is soon to face the charge in the Khayelitsha magistrate’s court.”
Van Wyk said it was later established that the arrested woman had been pregnant but had lost her baby in a miscarriage.
The Cape Argus spoke to Asenathi’s mother, Xolisiwe Magoda, 16, at her home in Harare before news broke of the arrest and recovery of her baby.
She said she had met the suspect when she took Asenathi to a clinic last Monday.
Xolisiwe said the woman had asked her how old her baby was and whether or not she had parents.
“She said she was from an organisation which worked with the government to help mothers with food, clothing and bursaries. I gave her my mom’s number to call me on and she promised to come visit us at home with forms to sign.”
Xolisiwe said the woman had asked her to accompany her to Cape Town for her organisation to interview her to see whether she qualified for aid.
When they arrived in the city, Xolisiwe realised she had left Asenathi’s clinic card at home and went to fetch it, leaving the baby with the woman.
When she returned, the baby and the woman were gone. - Cape Argus
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