HARARE – Police say the kidnapping of a two-year-old girl from a busy Bulawayo shopping centre was carried out by a 14-year-old Form One pupil, dramatically reversing earlier indications that the suspect was a man.
Baby Asanda Ndlovu, who was snatched from Meikles Market on Tuesday, was found unharmed on Thursday at a business premises at the corner of Herbert Chitepo Street and 3rd Avenue.
The teenage suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was paraded before reporters on Friday with her face covered by a mask.
In a startling confession, she told journalists she staged the kidnapping to convince her 36-year-old boyfriend, identified only as Mumba, that she had a child.
“Mumba asked me if I have a child and I said yes. So he asked me to bring the baby. That’s when I went to Meikles,” the girl said.
She said she entered the mall and went to a stall run by Nesisa Mpofu, pretending to be a customer looking for a pillow. Mpofu was at work with her baby.
“When I got there the baby was crying and I lifted her up. She stopped crying. She is a friendly baby,” she said.
Police had initially said they were hunting for a male suspect based on grainy CCTV footage showing a figure in jeans carrying the toddler. The teenager said she did not disguise herself but simply pulled a hoodie over her head.
She told police she took the child to Mumba, whom she described as her sister’s ex-boyfriend, intending to later return the baby. However, she alleged that Mumba instructed her to remain at his residence in Trenance until Thursday morning, when she returned to the city centre with the child.
At a block of flats housing several businesses, she approached a man in one office and asked him to look after the baby for a few minutes, claiming the child’s father was across the street and would collect her.
The man later told police he was alarmed that a stranger would entrust him with a toddler. He locked the teenager inside the office with another woman and rushed to Meikles Market to alert security guards. Police were subsequently called.
The teenager, who lives with her mother in Rangemore, said the baby had been fed on a diet of rice, hot chips and corn puff snacks during the two days she was missing.
“I’m really sorry. I made a mistake. I’m asking for forgiveness,” she said.
She is expected to appear before a juvenile court.
Meanwhile, Meikles Market administrators said they would be “implementing measures to strengthen safety protocols and ensure that incidents of this nature do not occur again.”
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