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Robson Sharuko
Editor
PAULINE Maganga, the disgraced 23-year-old mother who sold her two-day-old baby for R25 000 in Johannesburg, spent her first day in prison yesterday as she starts serving a 10-year jail term.
She hooked up with the buyer on a WhatsApp group and the toddler was supposed to be trafficked to Australia before the network was busted by the police.
While baby-selling is rare in this country, recent reports and media investigations have revealed that there is a global underground network in which babies are being sold around the world.
In Vietnam, right now, eight mothers, who said they sold their own babies because the pregnancies were unexpected and they were desperate for money, are on trial.
Six of the 14 defendants are being accused of brokering the illegal deals and forging documents to facilitate the trade.
Just like the Maganga case, court documents in Vietnam indicate that in 2021, a WhatsApp group was formed to find pregnant women who did not want to keep their children. The defendants in Vietnam bought each child for between US$400 and US$1,180 and sold them for over 40 million, according to investigators.
Those who were in charge of the operation faked birth certificates, adoption consent papers and DNA test results, which were purchased from another criminal group.
The investigation has revealed that from November 2021 to August 2022, the gang trafficked more than 10 newly-born babies.
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NIGERIA
There are baby factories in Nigeria where girls and women are raped to give birth to children for the sale purpose of providing trafficking cartels with the kids they need for their evil business.
“Some traffickers let their victims leave after giving birth because they believe if girls stay for too long, they could develop a plan to expose the trade,” Abang Robert, public relations head of Caprecon Development and Peace Initiative, an NGO focused on rehabilitating victims of human trafficking in Nigeria, told local media.
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KENYA
A Kenyan hospital employee, Fred Leparan, who was caught by the BBC selling a baby on the black market in 2020, was convicted of child trafficking.
He worked at Nairobi’s Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and was filmed accepting US$2,500 (£2,000) to sell a baby boy under the hospital’s care. The BBC investigations exposed the baby selling trade in Nairobi.
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BULGARIA
In December last year, a Bulgarian woman was handed a 10-month suspended prison sentence for selling her child to a married couple in Belgium.
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DELAWARE, USA
A Delaware mother of three was arrested and charged for trying to sell her newly-born son for US$15 000 because she didn’t want another child and wanted to go to Disney World.
Bridget Wismer (33) agreed to sell her infant son to John Gavaghan (54) of Philadelphia. They were both arrested.
A Kentucky couple, Zachary Davis and Jacquilyn Keith, is in jail for trying to sell their newly-born twin daughters for US$5 000.
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SOUTH AFRICA
In 2016, a South African woman, who tried to sell her 19-month-old son on the internet, was given a five-year suspended sentence and ordered to leave under house arrest for three years.
In November 2021, the High Court in Pretoria convicted Wayne and Justine Loubser, a Pretoria couple, for human trafficking.
The couple did not register their baby with the intention of selling the child.
Prosecutors in South Africa proved that “on two separate occasions the parents (Wayne and Justine Loubser) individually tried to sell the baby to Saunders (who ran a small business).
“The father approached Saunders first and offered to give her the baby for R2000 and asked to go with her to the Department of Home affairs to register the baby as hers. While the mother on November 3, 2020, approached Saunders and offered to give the baby to her for a fee of R2500 because she wanted to leave her husband and Pretoria.”
Online Reporter