A 22-year-old woman from Plumtree is emotionally shattered after her seven-day-old baby was allegedly kidnapped on Monday at Plumtree Hospital by a female stranger she met while going for a routine check-up.
CITE reported that the accused is a woman who claimed to the baby’s mother that she too, had a child who was admitted at the hospital.
The name of the mother of the missing child has been withheld as Police investigations are ongoing.
In an interview with CITE’s Senzeni Ncube, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson in Matabeleland South Province, Inspector Loveness Mangena confirmed the incident. She said:
On 6 May 2024 around 2 pm, the complainant went with her seven-day-old baby to Plumtree Hospital for routine checkups. She met the unknown woman and suspects that the accused can be around 26 years old.
The mother said the description of the woman is (she looked) clean, brown in complexion, height of about 1.6 metres. The woman was wearing a green top and a pink skirt
Inspector Mangena said as the two women conversed, the accused claimed she also had a child who was admitted at Plumtree Hospital. Added Insp. Mangena:
She then asked the complainant to buy her some bananas and some soft drinks at the hospital gate, the complainant went to buy them, leaving the baby in the custody of the accused. When she returned, this accused person was nowhere to be found.
Insp. Mangena has appealed to members of the public who might have information that can lead to the arrest of this person to report to any nearest police station.
The grandfather of the missing baby told CITE that his daughter first met up with the accused by the gate when she was going to collect some lunch money from her grandmother. He said:
My daughter had gone to hospital with her mother (my wife) who then had to leave her at the hospital as she had to prepare for another child going to school.
My daughter then asked for lunch money from her mother who then sent someone to go and give her.
It was on my daughter’s way to fetch that money that she first met up with the accused person who asked her the age of her baby before parting ways.
When my daughter returned to the queue she found the accused also in the queue without a baby claiming her child was admitted at the hospital, and then they started chatting.
The grandfather explained that as time went by, the woman told his daughter that she was hungry and wanted bananas so she asked her to go and buy the bananas at the gate. He said:
My daughter then left this woman with the baby together with the baby’s cards. When she came back she found the woman together with the baby gone.
She told the nurses about the incident, and they searched all the wards but couldn’t locate her. They then reported the matter to the police.
In Zimbabwe, cases where individuals, including maids, have kidnapped babies or stolen them from their homes are not uncommon.
In March this year, the wife of a retired senior police officer from Gweru was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for kidnapping an infant aged two months.
Sakhile Tanyanyiwa (34), who is the wife of former Police Commissioner Mekia Tanyanyiwa, appeared before the Gweru Magistrates Court on Tuesday, 12 March facing charges of kidnapping.
Tanyanyiwa will, however, serve an effective 12 months in prison after the court conditionally suspended 6 months for 5 years.
More: Pindula News