Free State police recovered a three-week-old baby boy on Sunday and arrested two women who allegedly kidnapped the child from her mother after posing as hospital officials in a Bloemfontein on Wednesday.
Captain Ernest Mayiki said police found the child in Phase Six, Bloemfontein after receiving a tip-off.
The baby was identified by the black birthmark on its cheek.
Mayiki said the woman who claimed to be the child’s mother said the baby had been given to her by a social worker.
The two woman began befriending several women at Pelanomi Hospital on Monday. They told patients they were hospital officials and asked if the patients had encountered any problems in the hospital.
They befriended the baby’s mother, Matsidiso Mosola asking how they could assist her.
The two women on Wednesday told Mosola that they were going to give her R100 to go home to the Eastern Cape.
They took Mosola and the child to a Bloemfontein taxi rank.
While in town the woman offered to buy Mosola food. Mosola was told to leave the child with one of the woman as children were not allowed into the shop.
When Mosola came out of the shop the woman had disappeared with the baby.
The other woman then gave Mosola money to call the police from a phone booth. When she came out of the phone booth the other woman had also disappeared.
The two woman, aged between 15 and 20, are expected to appear at Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on Monday on a charge of abduction. – Sapa