No jail time for Gqeberha baby kidnapper after disappearing with newborn for seven months

Baby Olothando with his family and the two hospital workers who tracked his family down using hospital records (Photo: Deon Ferreira)

By Estelle Ellis

29 Jul 2024

The Gqeberha Regional Court has sentenced a woman who kidnapped a baby in November 2022 to a suspended sentence, house arrest and 16 hours of community service a month for three years.

A young woman who kidnapped a baby in Nelson Mandela Bay was last week given a suspended sentence of one year, placed under correctional supervision for three years and ordered to perform 16 hours of community service a month at the Chatty Police Station in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Amahle Sigam (20) had pleaded guilty in the Gqeberha Regional Court to kidnapping and forgery.

In November 2022, baby Olothando Jali was kidnapped from Kenako Mall in Nelson Mandela Bay. He was four days old.

gqeberha baby kidnapping suspended sentence Baby Olothando with his family and the two hospital workers who tracked his family down using hospital records. (Photo: Deon Ferreira)

The baby’s mother, Noncedo Jali, said Sigam had befriended her and her sister, Nomathamsanqa Jali, while Noncedo was in the Dora Nginza Hospital after giving birth. Sigam returned to the hospital when Noncedo was discharged with her baby, allegedly to give back the R20 taxi fare that she had borrowed from Noncedo’s grandmother Lettie Mavikela.

Noncedo said Sigam accompanied her to the Kenako Mall, about 1.2km from the hospital. At the mall, she handed the baby to Sigam so she could sit down.

Sigam, the baby and a bag containing all his official documents then disappeared, she said.

Read more: Baby kidnapped from Gqeberha mall 7 months ago found by alert Dora Nginza Hospital social worker, admin clerk

The case went cold, but the family kept waiting for the return of their baby. Mavikela said last year that she was too scared to even go to church as she was afraid she would miss news of the baby.

Telltale Tipp-Ex

Seven months later, on 23 June 2023, Portia Marinana, a social worker in Dora Nginza Hospital’s paediatric department, made a breakthrough in the case.

An elderly couple walked into her office. “They wanted help with a proof-of-birth document for their seven-month-old grandson. It is easy. We always do that,” said Marinana.

“But we are very strict about just issuing these documents. I have to check whether the baby was indeed born here. I explained to them that we don’t issue proof of birth to just anyone. The biological mother must come here to get it.

“They told me that they were the biological grandparents of the baby. Their son was the father. They said the biological mother was their son’s girlfriend and she didn’t want to come. According to the couple, the mom was not compliant at all when it came to registering the baby.

“They claimed their grandson was born at Dora Nginza Hospital on 26 November 2022. I asked for the baby’s Road to Health booklet to confirm the place of birth. The booklet confirmed that the baby was indeed born at Dora Nginza Hospital. It had the Dora Nginza Hospital stamp. Inside the booklet, there was a discharge summary.

“But on both the Road to Health booklet and the discharge summary, the original patient details were erased with Tipp-Ex and new patient details were written down using a pen. They were in different handwriting on the card that did not match. Three things had been changed: the name of the mother; the date of birth of the baby; and the date of birth of the mother.”

Marinana became suspicious. She contacted a worker in the hospital’s records department, Kaamila Eagles, to check if Sigam was in the system. She was not — there was no record of her giving birth in November. However, they found the file of the baby’s real mother.

When she and Eagles went to see the family, they learnt that the baby had been kidnapped. They alerted the police, who arrested Sigam.

Later, Marinana found out that Sigam had pretended to be pregnant.

“We think she got away with it because she was a little bit chubby,” said Marinana.

Sigam’s boyfriend’s parents were convinced that she had been pregnant.

Baby Olothando was reunited with his family and today he is thriving. He walks and weighs almost 10kg. Gogo Lettie says he is “an eater”.

Read more: Tears, prayers and celebration as long lost baby is reunited with his family

NPA to decide on appeal

National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said Sigam had pleaded guilty and the prosecutor had asked that she be sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

Not Marinana nor Eagles nor the family were called to give evidence. According to the charge sheet, all the charges were regarded as one for sentencing.

Tyali said he would ask the senior public prosecutor whether the State planned to appeal or review the sentence. The NPA can appeal against a sentence from a lower court if the sentence is shocking and inappropriate

South African law prescribes a minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment for kidnapping. In a similar case, on 4 May 1994, baby Micaela Hunter was kidnapped from Marymount Maternity Home in Johannesburg when she was less than a day old.

She was reunited with her family two years later when the boyfriend of the woman who had kidnapped her surrendered the baby to the police and said he feared that the child had been kidnapped. Her kidnapper, Sonja Combrinck, was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment and served 10.

Zephany Nurse was abducted from Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town in 1997. She was found 17 years later. Her kidnapper, Lavona Solomon, was sentenced to 10 years for kidnapping Nurse as a baby and renaming her Miché. Solomon was paroled after serving seven years. DM

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Telltale Tipp-Ex

NPA to decide on appeal