Th e mother of the baby whose alleged abduction sparked a national manhunt in South Africa has been arrested. One-month-old Siwaphiwe Mbambo was found alive and well around midnight on Saturday. Th e mother had told police that she was taken during a car-jacking outside a shopping centre in the South African city of Durban on Friday.
But a police offi cial has accused her of making the crime up, after the baby was found with her boyfriend. Th e 34-year-old woman appeared at the Durban Magistrates court on Monday but her case was postponed to Wednesday because her lawyer was not present, and also to allow police to compile a full charge sheet, BBC’s Milton Nkosi in South Africa reports. Th e court also ordered the police to obtain the DNA of the baby girl to determine who her father is. Th e boyfriend, and a woman thought to be his other girlfriend, have also been arrested. “Th is was a false case and cost us money and resources that could have been deployed in other places‚“ said Maj Gen Bala Naidoo‚ KwaZulu-Natal deputy provincial commissioner for the detective service, according to Th e Herald newspaper. Th e abduction sparked a huge media campaign and a search by 100 offi cers. Th e mother had reported that two people stole her car, driving off with the baby. Both she and her husband made impassioned pleas for their baby to be returned. Many South Africans were moved by the case, and went on Twitter, using the hashtag #HelpFindDurbanBaby, to urge anyone with information to come forward. However, further investigation by the police led to the mother’s boyfriend. Baby Siwaphiwe was found in his car, when he was driving with a woman who appeared to be a girlfriend at Mariannhill Toll Plaza. Local media said the baby had been kept at his house in New Hanover. Gen Bala Naidoo told Th e Mercury newspaper that the mother’s hijacking report did not add up
