Pretoria baby found unharmed
Image by: Gallo Images/Thinkstock
A six-month old Pretoria baby thought to have been kidnapped by a nanny has been found alive and well, the Missing Children SA (MCSA) organisation reports.
The baby was found safe and unharmed at a crèche in Hillbrow, Johannesburg, on Tuesday morning, the organisations said in a statement.
"The suspect [his nanny] has not been found yet. Police are still looking for her," the MCSA said .
Official comment from police was not immediately available.
Lt-Col Tshisikhawe Ndou said earlier that a media briefing would be held at the Brixton police station on Tuesday afternoon.
Further details around the discovery of the baby were not immediately available.
The live-in nanny was believed to have kidnapped her employer's six-month-old baby on Monday from their home in Hestia Park, Pretoria.
The infant's mother woke up on Monday morning to find the nanny and the baby gone. The 21-year-old Zimbabwean had shared a room with the mother and the baby.
Ndou said a security guard told the mother that the nanny had left with the baby around 5am. She told the guard she was taking the baby to the doctor.
The guards alerted the mother who called the police, said Ndou.
Two cellphones, a wallet, a bank card and money were missing from the house.
Ndou said the nanny apparently sent a text message to the mother on Monday asking for a ransom in exchange for the baby's safe return.
Ndou could not confirm a news report that the nanny demanded R45,000 for the baby.
The Pretoria News reported on Tuesday that the nanny had spent weeks planning the alleged crime, erasing photos and videos of herself from the family's cellphones and laptop computer.
According to the report, she had also asked that copies of her asylum papers be returned to her on the pretext that they needed to be updated.
This could not be confirmed by Ndou.

SHARE YOUR OPINION
If you have an opinion you would like to share on this article, please send us an e-mail to the Times LIVE iLIVE team. In the mean time, click here to view the Times LIVE iLIVE section.