While it was the first time an advert for adoption had been put online, Molo Songololo says it has had babies for sale cases before.
|||Cape Town - Child rights organisation Molo Songololo says it has previously worked with cases where mothers had attempted to sell their unborn babies.
An advert was posted on Gumtree on April 17, allegedly by a 24-year-old woman who is two months pregnant.
She purportedly wanted to have the baby adopted “due to financial reasons and school commitments”.
The advertiser described herself as “a beautiful black woman” and asked anyone interested in adopting the baby from birth to call a cellphone number.
Several Cape Times calls to the number were met with an engaged signal. There was also no response to an automatic e-mail reply.
The advert has since been removed from the site.
Molo Songololo director Patric Solomons said while it was the first time an advert for adoption had been put online, they had worked with two similar cases over the past five years. “About four years ago a health worker in Khayelitsha alerted us after she suspected a woman was trying to have her baby adopted for money. It turned out that she had been raped and wanted the money to go back to the Eastern Cape,” he said. Solomons said the mother disappeared a few months later.
Solomons said soon after they assisted an Angolan woman who had been brought to Cape Town to have her baby adopted. “The mother was brought to Cape Town by a family member. The man had apparently arranged for the baby to be adopted by a couple for a fee, but she managed to return home with her baby.”
Solomons said there were many reasons why mothers may want compensation.
“In the Gumtree case, police are still not sure who the woman is or what her circumstances are. In most cases women choose adoption if they fell victim to sexual violence, there are financial constraints or they feel the baby will be cared for in another home, but they still need money to improve their own circumstances,” he said.
The case has been passed on to the police’s Counter Terrorism, Human Trafficking and Organised Crime Unit.
By late yesterday afternoon the national police office had not given more details.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Development has appointed officials to monitor classified advertising websites. MEC Albert Fritz has said the Children’s Act prohibited advertising the adoption of babies and children, and that the advert could be likened to child trafficking.
barbara.maregele@inl.co.za
Cape Times