SOUTH AFRICA – The father of a Mpumalanga woman who was found 20 years after she was stolen as a baby, says he is ready to start building a relationship with his daughter.
Speaking to Sowetan on Wednesday, the man who has asked not to be named, said all these years he thought his daughter was dead.
He said he had mixed emotions after discovering last month that his daughter, who was stolen hours after birth on March 23 2001, was alive.
“I had lost hope. I’m emotional. I never imagined this could happen,” he said.
The man said he and his family were working on building a relationship with their long-lost daughter.
“Things happen all the time but this is really God’s work. I didn’t even think she was still alive. I’m shocked. I’m happy and angry at the same time.”
The paternity of the 20-year-old woman was confirmed last month after her 16-year-old brother saw her picture on social media network Facebook under “people you may know”.
The teenager showed her picture to his grandmother, saying the woman in the picture looks a lot like her mother and other relatives.
The grandmother then took the image to her daughter, saying the person in it could be her long-lost daughter who was snatched at Ermelo Provincial Hospital 20 years ago.
The mother, now 36, then went to the police to asked them to reopen the case. The police complied and traced the woman to Carolina. DNA tests were conducted late last month and came back positive, proving that she had not been raised by her biological parents. The woman who acted as a mother has since been arrested for child abduction.
The 50-year-old is now out on R1,000 bail.
The long-lost woman’s paternal grandmother said she was happy that her granddaughter, who she has never met, had been found.
“My son went through depression. A lot was unclear and it was hard to believe, and it divided the families. We just want to find a way forward and mend each others’ broken hearts.”
The grandmother said after the baby was stolen, there had been a lot of pointing of fingers and anger between the families.
“No parent deserves to go through what we did. We had sleepless nights and were feeling the mother and father’s pain because they were still in their teen years when the child went missing,” she said.
She said she could not wait to meet her grandchild for the first time and would hold her tightly and give her a big warm hug.
“We would like to have a day soon where she will be officially introduced to the two families and know who she really is. We love her and don’t wish to buy her over and anger her. We just want to make up for all the time we lost and help her rebuild her bond with her parents.”
On Wednesday, Sowetan reported that the young woman had decided to go back to Carolina where she grew up, after telling her biological mother that she needed time to think.
