A 34-year-old promiscuous married woman, Sibongile Mbambo,
who orchestrated the fake abduction of her baby because of another man‚
has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
According to The Sowetan Live, Sibongile Mbambo had carefully hatched the abduction on order to hide her extramarital affair.
Her
sentence was handed down by a South African 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.
News of baby Siwaphiwe Mbambo’s
abduction last year, sparked nationwide concern and made local and
international headlines. The then month old baby was abducted during a
hijacking in Durban.
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.
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.
