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KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo has heaped praise on a vigilant nurse who foiled an attempt by two unknown men who tried to abduct newborn babies and their mothers from Addington Hospital recently.
It is alleged that the two men, who had Departmental name tags on their persons, gained access into Addington’s maternity ward and told nursing staff that they were collecting mothers and their new-born babies.
This was under the pretext of helping the mothers register for the babies’ birth certificates as part of Government’s campaign to register all births within the first 30 Days.
However, the alert sister-in-charge of the hospital at the time refused to release the mothers and their babies, and the men left shortly afterwards.
The incident took place last Saturday (22 September 2018).
In his reaction yesterday (30 September 2018), MEC Dhlomo described the incident as shocking and extremely concerning.
“We are really taken aback. This has all the makings of attempted human trafficking. As the Department of Health we have a partnership with the Department of Home Affairs whereby we run an online birth certificate registration system. This system ensures that all children who are born at major hospitals that are designated for specialised maternal and child care, such as Addington, leave the hospital with a birth certificate. In fact, this programme was launched by the Minister of Home Affairs at Addington Hospital in 2014. So, we are saying that mothers don't need anyone to help them in this regard.
“We are therefore extremely grateful to the sister-in-charge who was vigilant and listened to her instinct, and decided not to release the mothers and their babies.
“It is reprehensible that people would go to such lengths as to reproduce Departmental name tags and try to commit something so heinous. The pain and suffering that could have resulted from this is unimaginable.
“We are urging all security personnel, nursing staff and mothers themselves at all our healthcare facilities to be extra vigilant because it is clear that there are unscrupulous people who are out to cause mayhem.”
The relevant authorities have been notified of this attempted abduction.
Note: Just to clarify: the two unknown men had on name tags that bore Home Affairs insignia