For 20 years, Ntombentsha Manana never stopped searching for the daughter who was stolen as a newborn baby as they headed home from the maternity ward of an Ermelo hospital.
Two years ago Manana thought her dreams had miraculously come true when her lost daughter was found, thanks to a chance friend suggestion on Facebook.
But her hopes of a joyous reunion were dashed when the young woman decided to keep her distance from her biological family.
“I have lost my eldest child now for the second time to the same thief. I am more sad than angry. I cannot make decisions for my child. I also cannot change her heart. She will love who she loves,” Manana told the Sunday Times this week.
Bawinile Lusenga, who was arrested on November 29 2021, was convicted of child abduction in the Ermelo magistrate’s court last week. She remains on bail and the case was postponed to June 6 for a pre-sentencing report, according to Monica Nyuswa, spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority in Mpumalanga.
Manana, 39, was just 16 when she fell pregnant with the child.
“[She] was born on March 23 2001. My sister came to fetch me at the hospital in Ermelo,” said Manana, who lives in a township just outside Breyten, 30km north of Ermelo.
A woman I did not know joined us. She was so focused on my sister that I thought they knew each other. I know her now. I will never forget her name.
— Ntombentsha Manana
“A woman I did not know joined us. She was so focused on my sister that I thought they knew each other. I know her now. I will never forget her name. Her name is Bawinile Lusenga.”
Her sister carried the baby as they walked towards the Ermelo taxi rank. “She wanted something from a shop, so she handed my baby back to me while I waited with the other woman,” Manana said.
“Bawinile took my child from me and said she was going to find my sister in the shop. I did not for one moment think it strange or suspicious.”
For the next 20 years she replayed that moment in her head. “She did not return from the shop and when my sister came outside.”
Over the years, she chased leads all over Mpumalanga. “People would tell us they saw her in Carolina, or Ermelo or Bethal, and we would drop everything and run. We never found her.”
In October 2021, Manana’s second child, Senzo Mashilwane, 20, was browsing on Facebook when a friend suggestion drew his attention.
“The woman looked a lot like my uncle. I showed the picture to my grandmother. She immediately recognised her,” Mashilwane said.
His grandmother, Daynamoyo Manana, 53, nods. “Twenty years made no difference. I immediately knew this was our stolen child. My heart is so sore, even now.”
They told the police, who traced the young woman to Carolina, about 30km away, where she lived with the people she believed were her parents.
Police spokesperson Brig Selvy Mohlala said at the time of Lusenga’s arrest that she had been taken for DNA testing.
“The results proved that this was the child who was snatched from her mother hours after she had given birth at the Ermelo Provincial Hospital,” Mohlala said.
But there has been very little contact between the family and their stolen daughter since Lusenga’s arrest.
“The last time she spoke to us was in January over the phone. Since then, whenever we try to phone her that other woman answers the phone,” Ntombentsha Manana said.
Daynamoyo said she was angry. “None of us are fine. We are all struggling with this thing. In December my granddaughter came here and said she will travel through life with us and the other family, but since January there has been nothing.”
The young woman at the centre of the drama, whose name is being withheld on her request, declined to comment.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.