Smuggled child reunites with mother

By Silas Nkala | Mar. 4, 2023

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) intervened to assist the mother after the father smuggled the baby to the neighbouring country without her consent.

A THREE-YEAR-OLD child who was smuggled by his father to South Africa has been reunited with her mother in Bulawayo.

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) intervened to assist the mother after the father smuggled the baby to the neighbouring country without her consent.

Yesterday, ZLHR lawyer Jabulani Mhlanga confirmed that the 24-year-old mother has since been reunited with her child.

“The child has been reunited with the mother (on Wednesday). She was handed over to her by police officers from Pumula Police Station after the alleged father and grandfather brought her back from South Africa,” Mhlanga said.

ZLHR lawyer, Prisca Dube told Southern Eye last week that the child was trafficked to South Africa after she had visited her paternal grandmother in Pumula South during the Christmas holidays.

The child’s paternal grandmother had requested to have the child over the festive season.

“She willingly gave the child to her with the hope that the child would come back in preparation for 2023 to start Early Childhood Development classes,” Dube said.

“She later received a WhatsApp message with pictures of the child from her father’s relative. The message said she will bespending the festive season in SA. She was concerned becauseat the time they had not yet processed her birth certificate… This is when she was referredto ZLHR.”