The desperate women who kidnap babies

Desperate to find a baby, aged three months or younger, a 21-year-old woman who introduced herself as "Thandeka" approached several families in the rural area of Colenso before she finally found her easy target.

Two days after one-month-old Mlondi Thwala was snatched, police were yesterday trying to understand why the woman had gone through so much trouble to hatch an elaborate plan and why she was so desperate as to kidnap an infant.

Their questions pointed to one answer, KwaZulu-Natal police spokesman Captain Thulani Zwane explained.

"The dominant reason is some women falsify their pregnancies and want to protect their love relationship so they have to steal a baby. Babies are being stolen by strangers in clinics, hospitals, Home Affairs offices and taxi ranks while in the care of mothers. We have registered a number of such cases," he said.

Mlondi was allegedly snatched from his mother, Nomuso Thwala, by the smartly dressed woman on Monday afternoon.

Zwane said Mlondi was taken from his mother at the Ladysmith Home Affairs office.

The woman had claimed she had been sent by the municipality to offer them support.

"The suspect approached Mlondi's mother and convinced her to travel with her to the Home Affairs office in Ladysmith where [she said] she would help her get documents necessary to obtain a grant for the baby.

"At the Home Affairs offices, the suspect told the mother she was going to fetch food for the baby and left with the infant. After a few minutes the mother became worried and went in search of the woman, but she and the baby were nowhere to be found," Zwane said.

Thwala yesterday said the woman had promised to help her apply for a R1000-a-month social grant.

"All I need is my child. That woman took advantage of me after noticing that I was plunged into poverty. I trusted her as she acted like she had come from the government," Thwala said before bursting in tears.

Before Mlondi was stolen, the youngest kidnapped baby in KwaZulu-Natal was a three-month-boy boy, taken from Addington Hospital in Durban last year.

"We were able to find the baby through the help of the media. The abductor was arrested in Isipingo and stated that she had falsified her pregnancy so she had to get a child," Zwane said.

Missing Children SA national coordinator Judy Olivier said most women who steal babies have an emotional motive.

"In some cases, the woman lost her child and could not go back to the community without a child in fear of being degraded. Some women kidnap babies because they cannot have a children of their own."

Olivier said it appeared that Mlondi's kidnapper had gone through "a lot of trouble to get to find a soft target".

"It's difficult to know why she did it but it seems to be that she was going through some trauma."

The organisation, which has an 87% success rate, dealt with 60 cases of missing children aged under six years from December 2010 to November.

The Western Cape recorded the highest number, with 23 missing children under the age of six.- Additional reporting by Nivashni Nair