A 21-year-old woman has been arrested for kidnapping a two-week-old baby, Owami Lonathando Sindani, in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
According to the police, the suspect befriended the child’s mother, Bongiwe Sindani after they met while waiting in a queue at a local clinic on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
The suspect visited Bongiwe at her home in Nsimbini on Sunday, May 4, 2025 and fled with the child and her cellphone after she stepped out to discard a bucket of water.
The mother had minimal information about her visitor. She conducted an extensive search with the assistance of the community, but was unsuccessful in locating the infant.
Members of Reaction Unit South Africa (RUSA) tracked down and arrested the suspect on Monday, May 5 in the vicinity of the Westville Pavilion Shopping Center in KZN.
“The RUSA Operations Center received a call from Bongiwe Sidane last night (22:00 Sunday) reporting the kidnapping of her baby. Reaction Officers circulated the missing child and received thirty four (34) tip offs and leads in the eleven (11) hours leading to the arrest & recovery,” RUSA said in a statement.
“Officers followed up on tip-offs from the public In Pietermaritzburg- KZN, Limpopo Province, Cape Town – Western Cape & Johannesburg – Gauteng. Reports of women returning home with babies and behaving suspiciously were received throughout the night.
“During the early hours of this morning, Reaction Officers narrowed down a search area to Chesterville in Kwazulu Natal. Believing that the female suspect was in possession of the kidnapped baby and planning to flee the KZN Province, Reaction Officers blocked off all entry/exits & kept observation while the RUSA Helicopter searched the area for a vague location provided.
“A woman was spotted behaving suspiciously with a new born baby. When Officers stopped her, it was established that the child in her possession was Baby Sindane.
“The woman was placed under arrest and had to be removed from the area after a mob threatened to kill her. She was detained at FCS SAPS Cato Manor & positively identified by the mother as the woman that had kidnapped her baby.
“When Reaction Officers interviewed the woman, she confirmed that she had kidnapped the child after she suffered a miscarriage on April 24, 2025.
“She then met Bongiwe Sindane at a local clinic and hatched a plan to kidnap her baby so her boyfriend would not dump her.
“After the kidnapping, she visited her boyfriend in Chesterville – KZN and convinced him that it was his child.
