Woman who was stolen as a baby seeks closure

AFTER learning as an adult that she was stolen as a baby and the woman that raised her was not her biological mother, Thabsile Mkhize has embarked on an exhaustive quest to find her real family. Thabsile said the woman, Sheila Dlamini, died before she could get all details surrounding the incident, and she has been left with more questions than answers.

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“I grew up with MaDlamini, staying in KwaMakhutha, knowing her as my mother, but while I was still very young before I had even started school, she sent me to live with another family in the Mkhunya area, for reasons I don’t know. I stayed with that family for a few years, and I endured so much physical and emotional abuse during my stay there,” said Thabsile.

While living with that family, she said another family moved to the area, and they said they were MaDlamini’s relatives.

“They would bring me clothes and other things from time to time, which they said were from her,” she said.
After the abuse became unbearable where she was staying, Thabsile said she ran away to the family who had said they were MaDlamini’s relatives, and ended up staying there for good.

“I started school while I was with that family, and that is where I spent the rest of my childhood. Never once did the woman whom I thought was my mother visit me, and when I asked the adults, they told me she had abandoned me,” she said.

Through her teenage years, she started experiencing more abuse, so she he ran away again and came to Umlazi where she started fending for herself by doing odd jobs.

“I managed to find MaDlamini in 2013, and I moved in with her but she was very cold and distant. I would have thought a mother would try and make up for the love they missed out on giving their child, but that was never the case,” said Thabsile.

“We got into an argument when I asked her who my father was because I had always known that the man she had been previously married to was not my father. That is when she finally admitted that she was not my biological mother. When I pressed her about who my real parents were, she gave me various conflicting stories, one of which was that she found me abandoned in the streets of Umlazi,” she said.

When Mkhize started doing research and speaking to some people that knew MaDlamini, they admitted to her that she had stolen her as an infant, probably from Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital between 1988 and 1989. While a birth certificate and an identity document were issued for her, she has never been sure of her actual date of birth.

MaDlamini admitted that she had indeed stolen her before passing away in May 2022, and Thabsile’s life has been in limbo ever since. The search for her biological family has taken Thabsile to radio stations and social media where she has shared her story and asked for help. She has followed a few leads but the stumbling block has been the high price of DNA testing with potential families who also lost infant babies at the time of her disappearance.
Anyone who may know someone who had a baby stolen in the mid to late 1980s, in Umlazi, KwaMakhutha and the surrounding areas, can contact Thabsile on 061 473 0442.

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