Nurse foils abduction attempt at KZN hospital

Source: The Citizen, 04/10/2018

Two unknown men donning department of home affairs name tags gained
access to the hospital’s maternity ward with the intention of
kidnapping mothers and newborns.
A nurse has been praised for intercepting an attempted abduction of
mothers and their babies at Addington Hospital in Durban, reports
Zululand Observer.
It is reported that on September 22, two unknown men with department
of home affairs name tags gained access to the hospital’s maternity
ward and told nursing staff they were collecting mothers and their
newborn babies.
The men pretended they would help the mothers register their babies as
part of Government’s campaign to register all births within the first
30 days.
The nurse in charge at the time refused to release the mothers and
their babies and the men left shortly afterwards.
KZN Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo described the incident as
shocking and extremely concerning.
“This has all the makings of attempted human trafficking,” Dhlomo said.
“The department of health has a partnership agreement with the
department of home affairs, whereby we run an online birth certificate
registration system.
“This system ensures that all children born at major hospitals
designated for specialised maternal and child care, such as Addington,
leave the hospital with a birth certificate. This programme was
launched by the minister of home affairs at Addington Hospital in
2014. So we are saying that mothers don’t need anyone to help them in
this regard.”
He applauded the sister in charge of the ward at the time of the
incident for following her instincts.
“It is reprehensible that people would go to such lengths, reproducing
departmental name tags to commit something so heinous. The pain and
suffering that could have resulted from this is unimaginable.
“We urge all security personnel, nursing staff, and mothers themselves
at all our healthcare facilities to be extra vigilant because it is
clear that there are unscrupulous people who are out to cause harm,”
he concluded.
The department said relevant authorities have been notified of the
attempted abduction.