Eastern Cape welcomes 224 New Year’s Day babies

As South Africans celebrated the start of a new year on Wednesday, the  Eastern Cape welcomed 224 newborns to its population on New Year’s Day.

Of the 224, 115 were baby girls, outnumbering the 109 boys.  

Nelson Mandela Bay welcomed 33 babies, taking second place after OR Tambo’s 51 babies.

Elsewhere  in the province, 29 babies were  born in the Alfred Nzo region, 21 in Amathole, 32  in Buffalo City, 30 in Chris Hani, 15 in Joe  Gqabi and  10 in Sara Baartman.

Nelson Mandela Bay couple, Ncamile and Xoliswa Dyala’s daughter is among the 13 newborns delivered at Dora Nginza on Wednesday.

The couple had  been at the hospital shortly after midnight after Xoliswa started feeling labour pains at 11.55pm the previous night. 

The baby was born at 6.55am.

“I am happy to have this child. My first born was born here,” Xoliswa said.

“I get very good service at this hospital. The nurses and doctors took good care of me.

“I am glad that my kids and I will share a star sign because the first was born the 28th of December, this second one on the 1st of January and I was born on 10 January,” she said.

Ncamile said on any other New Year’s Eve he would be out and about with his friends but he had decided to stay indoors with his wife to wait for the arrival of their second child. 

“I am very happy that God has blessed me with the second baby girl, especially that my child was born on the first of January and being the first child to be born in the new year at this hospital,” he said. 

Eastern Cape premier Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane and his wife Siyasanga visited the hospital to hand out gifts and spent New Year’s morning with new moms and babies who had been born between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

“It is a new year, everyone is celebrating and people are in the joyous mood out there so we wanted to have this kind of a mood for them here and that’s why we are here,”  Mabuyane said.

“To us this is not just a visit, it is very important because it links to our vision as the province because we understand that we have to look after these young people.”