The police in Kimberley arrested a 21-year-old female in connection with the kidnapping of a baby girl on Wednesday afternoon, 6 September, from a hospital in Kimberley.
Lt Col Sergio Kock, police spokesperson, said the baby was recovered from a house in Greenpoint, Kimberley, today, at about 09:00 by members of the Kimberley Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) unit, with the assistance of the Kimberley Crime Intelligence unit.
This arrest followed the kidnapping of a baby girl from the K3 ward of the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital (RMSH) in Kimberley on Wednesday afternoon, which was heavily criticised.
By late Thursday afternoon, the police issued a statement asking for the public’s help in locating the baby girl, and by Thursday evening, the provincial Department of Health confirmed that a case of a missing baby had been filed with the police.
When 26-year-old Natasha Japhta and her newborn daughter, Lezaane, were air-lifted from De Aar to Kimberley on Saturday, 2 September, she had no idea that the hospital authorities would be discharging her without her child.
Japhta says that Lezaane was born on Saturday, but due to problems with her lungs, they were urgently sent from De Aar to the RMSH’s neonatal intensive care unit.
By Wednesday there was so much improvement with her baby that it was decided to send them home.
Suspicious woman spotted
On that day, at around 16:00, Japhta was busy with the final administration before being discharged. In the ward she confirmed to those present that she will be leaving Lezaane in her cot, but when she returned, only the blankets remained.
Japhta says that although she was immediately worried, she remembered that earlier in the week at one stage, Lezaane was also not in her cot when she had to leave the ward for a moment. However, Lezaane was then taken by a member of the nursing staff to another part of the ward for blood tests.
She immediately started asking around, and when a sister told her: “But I thought she was with you,” Japhta immediately knew there was something wrong.
A suspicious-looking woman, whom she had noticed occassionaly at the ward, immediately came to mind.
This woman apparently often sat in the waiting area in front of the K3 ward, wearing a pink dressing-gown and had covered her face. Japhta never heard the woman speak, but according to her the woman had a “yellowish” complexion.
It is alleged that this woman suffered a miscarriage.
After Lezaane’s disappearance, the dressing-gown was purportedly found under one of the machines at the front of the hall.
Still, no alarm was immediately raised or Japhta’s family contacted to support her. Japhta says she had to borrow someone’s cell phone to call her family in De Aar.
“There is no security here,” says Herbert Japhta, an uncle of Japhta. He says that by Wednesday the hospital management wanted to hold a meeting about the incident, while no actual action was taken.
This kidnapping incident coincided with a strike by hospital security personnel, and it was later learned that the security cameras also do not work.
- Before the arrest, the police followed up on information and found the newborn baby and her clothes with the female suspect.
- Kock said the baby will undergo procedural medical observation and will be reunited with her parents.
- The provincial commissioner for the Northern Cape, Lt Gen Koliswa Otola, thanked all police members for their relentless efforts that led to the infant being found and also commended the community for their assistance in this regard.
