Police are investigating the brazen kidnapping of two premature babies from a Nelson Mandela Bay hospital on Tuesday evening.
What must be every mother’s nightmare became a reality at Dora Nginza Hospital, in Gqeberha, on Tuesday night, 20 May, when two unrelated babies were snatched in a single kidnapping incident in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The Gqeberha police’s Family Violence, Child Protection, and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit is investigating two cases of kidnapping following the abduction of the newborn boys from the public health facility in Zwide.
At the time of their tragic disappearance, the infants were just four and two days old and still in incubators at the hospital. According to reports, one of them was also being treated for a broken arm.
Double kidnapping of premature babies from hospital
South African Police Service (Saps) spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg told The Citizen that health authorities and the FCS were in a race against time to find the little boys alive.
According to the spokesperson, the mother of one of the infants left her baby in the maternity ward’s premature unit after breastfeeding him at around 7pm.
“When she returned at 8.30pm to feed the child again, she discovered he was missing,” Janse van Rensburg said.
A second mother later arrived at the ward and discovered that her baby son was also missing.
When questioned about the shocking incident, Eastern Cape health department spokesperson, Sizwe Kupelo, confirmed that both mothers are from Gqeberha.
According to Kupelo, a security guard stationed in the maternity building tried to stop two women who were trying to access the ward carrying a bag.
“The ladies were assumed to be breastfeeding. However, one of them managed to evade the security guard and gain access into the nursery carrying the same bag.”
Kupelo added that CCTV footage shows one of the women later using a different door to exit with the bag.
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MEC call for internal investigation
The MEC for Health, Ntandokazi Capa, condemned the incident and has instructed hospital authorities to launch an internal investigation.
She urged members of the Gqeberha community to assist police should they have any information on the whereabouts of the infants or their disappearance from the hospital.
- Anyone with information about individuals in possession of two infants under suspicious circumstances is urged to contact Colonel Biko at 076-129-2948, Crime Stop at 08600 10111 or their nearest police station. All information will be treated as confidential, and callers may remain anonymous.
This is a developing story, and more information will be published as soon as it becomes available.
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