MBOMBELA – The five accused of kidnapping a newborn baby from the Rob Ferreira Hospital appeared in court again on Thursday.
The case was postponed once again. Messrs Ananias Ndzimba (27), Julius Sithole (25), Phineas Sono (35), Aaron Moyo Nyoni (20) and Ms Portia Ncube (31) stand accused of stealing a day-old baby from his sleeping mother on Saturday, August 30, by posing as relatives of the mother.
The baby was taken from his mother’s side and carried out of the hospital building. No closed-circuit television footage of the alleged kidnapping is available as the hospital’s CCTV cameras were out of order at the time of the incident.
Sono, Nyoni and Ncube were granted bail in September. Ndzimba and Sithole are still in custody. These two applicants are not South African citizens, but Mozambique residents. The investigation is still underway and the baby has not been found yet. When the five accused appeared in court on Thursday, the case was postponed once again. They will appear in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on January 12.
With the increase in human-trafficking incidents, Lowvelder has enquired how Rob Ferreira plans to prevent such an incident from occurring again. The Mpumalanga Department of Health responded by saying that it, in consultation with the Department of Safety, Security and Liaison, alerted security personnel at various hospitals to be more vigilant on those entering and exiting health facilities. Visitors to Rob Ferreira Hospital are now requested to open their cars’ boots when leaving the premises. According to security personnel, this will assist in preventing future incidents such as the alleged kidnapping of baby Mandlazi.
Read previous article here.
