KZN woman gets 4 years in jail for kidnapping baby
Bongeka Patricia Mathonsi, 33, was sentenced in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court.
Picture: iStock
A KwaZulu-Natal woman has been sentenced to four years in prison for stealing a baby to convince her boyfriend she was pregnant and had given birth to his baby.
Bongeka Patricia Mathonsi, 33, was sentenced in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court last week, police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said.
She said Mathonsi broke into a house in KwaPata in October 2019 and took the baby.
The baby’s mother realised the child was missing in the early hours of that morning when she went to breastfeed the baby.
Detectives traced Mathonsi and arrested her at her boyfriend’s house.
“[Mathonsi] had deceived her boyfriend… that she was pregnant with his baby. The boyfriend had been depositing cash for the pregnancy until the birth of the baby,” Mbele said.
“The accused stole the baby when the boyfriend wanted to see the baby so that he would take her to his home for their traditional rituals.”
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