Photos: South African woman who orchestrated the fake abduction of her baby to hide her extramarital affair sentenced to 5 years imprisonment
The
South African mother who orchestrated the fake abduction of her baby
Siwaphiwe‚ has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
Sibongile Mbambo, 34, had carefully hatched the abduction on order to hide her extramarital affair.
Her sentence was handed down by Regional Court magistrate Anand Maharaj on Wednesday. She had pled guilty to charges of defeating the ends of justice and fraud. Her leave to appeal was refused and she was taken
into custody.Her sentence was handed down by Regional Court magistrate Anand Maharaj on Wednesday. She had pled guilty to charges of defeating the ends of justice and fraud. Her leave to appeal was refused and she was taken
News
of baby Siwaphiwe Mbambo's abduction last year, sparked nationwide
concern and made local and in
The Durban Regional Court heard on Tuesday‚ how the mother, Mbambo carefully hatched the abduction in an effort to hide her sordid extra-marital affair from her husband.
Details
of the plot‚ which led police on a province-wide search for the baby in
March last year‚ were laid before Magistrate Anand Maharaj as Mbambo’s
attorney‚ Mfanafuthi Biyela‚ led evidence in mitigation of sentence.
Mbambo
and her lover‚ Phumlani Mbokazi‚ 26‚ faced charges of fraud and
defeating the ends of justice after their web of lies was unravelled by
police investigating the abduction of Siwaphiwe‚ supposedly taken during
a hijacking gone awry at a shopping mall. The woman had pled guilty‚
while Mbokazi’s trial has yet to commence.
On Tuesday‚
a probation officer and a social worker testified that Mbambo had
detailed the extent of her plans and what had driven her to stage the
child-snatching.
Social
worker Lydia Watson testified that during her consultation with Mbambo‚
she revealed that she’d met Mbokazi at a shop two months before she had
fallen pregnant.
“She
had fallen pregnant and during that time she was uncertain of who the
father was because she had had relations with the biological father and
her husband‚” she said.
After the child was born‚ Watson said that Mbokazi had sent her pictures of his other children to compare to Siwaphiwe.
“On seeing pictures of the other children this crystallised‚ in her mind‚ that he was the father.”
She feared that the physical appearance of the child would reveal that her husband was not the father.
“She
was part of a polygamous relationship and she was much younger than her
husband and she missed the affection [of other men]‚” Watson said‚ as a
possible reason for her affair.
The
baby was returned to the mother’s custody late last year‚ despite her
having been convicted to fraud and defeating the ends of justice.
The
Family Court had ordered that the child be returned to the natural
mother after social workers had moved to have the baby transferred to
the care of her maternal grandmother.
On Monday‚
her husband‚ Christopher‚ testified in mitigation of sentence for his
wife. He revealed that he had doubts about the paternity of the baby
before their scheme was hatched.
Trying
to justify why his wife had mislead the media and staged a radio appeal
for her child’s safe return‚ he said she was scared and confused.
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