Baby kidnapped, cops do nothing

A devastated young family whose day-old baby boy was kidnapped has been shunned by the police, worsening their heartache.

On 20 September, 24-year-old Thokozile Mncube gave birth to a baby boy at Coronation Hospital. As any mother would do, she delightedly took photos of her baby, but because she had no airtime she could not send them to friends and family. The next day, she and the baby were discharged from the hospital.

While she was waiting for a taxi to her home in Florida, she was approached by a friendly elderly woman who was travelling with two men and another woman in a silver/grey Mercedes Benz. They asked her if she knew how to get to Roodepoort . She showed them which direction and they offered her a ride which she gladly took, with her newborn baby.

When they reached Unified Station, she told them to turn, but they kept going straight. The mother then realised that something was wrong. They stopped outside The Apple Bite Roadhouse in Kathleen Street. Both men drew firearms, pointed them at Mncube and demanded she hand over her belongings and the baby. They then drove with her to Orlando, where they pushed her from the vehicle – kidnapping her baby, and in taking her belongings, taking the only pictures she had of him.

She was taken to the Lenasia Police Station, where the police refused to open a case, saying she had to go to the Sophiatown Police Station, as that was the closest to where she was kidnapped. She obliged, a case was opened and an investigating officer (IO) appointed.

By 14 October, the police had still not spoken to the family. The family then tried to obtain footage from the hospital of the mother and baby leaving, but the images were very blurred. On numerous occasions, the parents contacted the police, asking the IO to follow up on the fact that Mncube’s ATM card was used at an FNB machine in Sebokeng – which likely would have had pictures of the suspects that could be obtained and circulated – and to try to obtain footage from the Rea Vaya bus-stop at the hospital. The police officer told the family that she didn’t have access to a police vehicle, so they must arrange one, fetch her, take her to the FNB and then take her back to the police station. Since the family did not have a vehicle, they could not do this.

When a friend of the family confronted the IO, she was allegedly told, “Well, the parents must assist me. It is not for me to assist them. I do not know that baby!”

Later the officer told the father, 37-year-old Thulani Mncube, that “FNB cannot say at which ATM the money was withdrawn”. (All electronic transactions can be traced and police often use footage from ATMs to catch criminals). The father then tried to get the footage from the cameras at the Apple Bite Roadhouse but the roadhouse’s security company, which owns the footage, said they would only give it to the police. When the father relayed this information to the IO, she told him he must stop bringing her little bits of information, and bring her something when he has something “big, not this one!”.

At the time of publication, the police had yet to inform the family of the status of the investigation, or whether they have made any progress.

Neither the Sophiatown Police Station’s spokesperson, not the investigating officer, could be reached for comment.

The Record will escalate the matter to the police’s provincial structure.

Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.

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