Having been handed a newborn baby by a strange woman who then vanished, a grandmother who lives on the streets wrapped the infant in a piece of fabric and walked for hours trying to find someone to help her.
Desiree Botha, 50, was lauded by welfare workers and police for saving the life of the abandoned baby girl as she walked from a clinic to a police station to a welfare organisation in Mount Croix on Sunday trying to find assistance.
Botha said on Monday that she and her friend – only known as Desmond – were on their way to a liquor store in Westbourne Road to buy some “skip [ship] sherry” when they were confronted by the pyjama-clad mother with her baby.
“I won’t lie to you. We drink a bit. I am not married to Desmond but I stay with him on the streets.
“My husband died. We have been sleeping outside in Westbourne Road for 16 years.
“This woman came up to me. She said, ‘Please hold my child just for a few minutes. I just want to go to the shop to buy sanitary pads’,” Botha said.
The store was just a few metres down the road.
“The child was making noises like it was choking,” Botha said.
“I went to the store to look where [the mother] was.
“The store [staff] said, ‘Nobody like that came in here’.
“The woman was wearing pyjama bottoms with flowers and slippers that looked like bunnies.
“The baby was naked. She didn’t even have a blanket,” a tearful Botha said as she recalled the details.
“I have five grandchildren and I miss them a lot but they live too far. I love babies so much. This little child was cold and dirty,” she said.
But for Botha, looking for help proved more daunting than she could have imagined.
“The umbilical cord was just hanging from the child. I went to the clinic at the back of Provincial Hospital [where] they tied it off. They wouldn’t take the child. They said I must go to the police.”
But after having walked to the Mount Road police station, Botha was instructed by the police to approach a welfare organisation, which is when she was forced to walk to the Eastern Province Child and Youth Care Centre in Conyngham Road.
“They [the centre] gave me two blankets and five nappies,” Botha said.
It was when she returned to the Mount Road police station that she was eventually given a lift to Dora Nginza Hospital.
“I have never met that [mother] before but I will be able to point her out if I see her.
“Who gives away a precious baby like that? She spoke to me in Afrikaans,” Botha said.
“I went with the baby until we could give her to the nurses at Dora Nginza Hospital.
“The baby wasn’t crying.”
However, Botha burst into tears when she saw the pictures of the healthy baby in Dora Nginza Hospital and started kissing the cellphone.
“That is her. That is the little baby. I am so glad she is looking so healthy,” she said.
Isabel van As, 59, who was on duty at the Eastern Province Child and Youth Care Centre, said it was about 11.30am when Botha and Desmond came in with the baby.
“The baby was very dirty and her feet were blue and cold. She barely moved,” Van As said.
“She was wrapped in a dirty piece of fabric and it was raining outside.
“I took a brand new yellow and white crocheted blanket from a packet and wrapped her in it and added another fleece blanket for extra warmth,” she said.
“I was so shocked I just grabbed some nappies to give to her but they were probably too big.”
Dora Nginza Hospital social worker Pamela Rubushe said she was disappointed to hear that yet another abandoned baby had arrived at the hospital.
She said the baby was probably born on Sunday.
“She weighs about 3kg. The baby looks healthy.”
Rubushe said the child had been taken into the hospital as “Unknown Sunday” but needed to be registered properly.
“I want to call on the community to help us trace this mother,” she said.
“Even if she [baby] is given up for adoption she still needs to be registered properly,” Rubushe said.
Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge confirmed Botha’s story but said no criminal case was opened at Mount Road police station as what had happened was not technically child abandonment.
“I want to thank [Botha] for bringing the child to safety.
“It sounds like this mom didn’t know what to do. I am sure she is worried about the baby,” he said.
“Maybe she did what she thought was the best thing for her child.”
Beetge said if anybody wanted to offer assistance they could get in touch with Rubushe on 041-406-4328.