Jade Witten
11 November 2009
The woman who kidnapped two-week-old Siphisihle Ncumani from Tygerberg Hospital in July did so because she had heard it was easy to snatch a baby from the biggest hospital in the province, and because she believed his mother was dying, a court has heard.
Bellville Regional Court Magistrate JS Lombard on Tuesday sentenced Bulelwa Xeza to 10 years in jail, five of which were suspended on condition she is not found guilty of kidnapping or attempted kidnapping during that time.
In addition, the 31-year-old of Mfuleni woman was found unfit to own a firearm.
In her plea explanation on Tuesday, she said she had heard through an unknown person that many babies were being neglected at the hospital.
On July 24, the day of the kidnapping, she also overheard two nurses speaking about mother Zimkhitha Ncumani's comatose state, and that she was apparently going to die.
Xeza later wrapped 21-year-old Ncumani's newborn son in a blanket and casually walked out of Ward J-2 with him.
But Lombard, in passing sentence, said the hospital was not a "self-help shop" where people could walk in, take a child and walk out.
"You looked at the (security) system and took a chance," he said.
Since the incident, security at the hospital has reportedly been beefed up. Extra guards have been deployed and cameras installed in the post-natal and neo-natal wards.
The baby was in Xeza's care for a month before a neighbour queried the gender of the child they thought was a girl.
The police were informed and Xeza was arrested on August 26.
"You (Xeza) had enough time to come to your senses but you went ahead anyway, you had a month to think about it ... (but) you lived a lie," said Lombard.
Before sentence was passed, the court also heard that Xeza had suffered at least two miscarriages since last year, and had allegedly been pressured and assaulted by her boyfriend of five years to have a child.
Xeza, who has a child who lives with his biological father in the Free State, explained that she had stolen the Ncumani baby to pass him off as a child she had conceived with her present boyfriend.
Lombard said it did not appear that Xeza's boyfriend had assaulted her because she could not have children, but that she had committed the crime because she wanted a child so badly, despite already having one of her own.
"It is a true shame," he said.
Xeza's lawyer, Nico Van Rensburg, said a psychologist's report indicated Xeza was depressed at the time of the offence, and had since been diagnosed with a major depressive disorder and suffered anxiety attacks.
Lombard, however, said the sentence should serve as a warning to the community that kidnappings would not be tolerated.
Prosecutor Herculine Swart said the baby's mother was "satisfied" with the sentence.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Cape Argus. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
