ISSUES AT STAKE: Baby abandonment a complex issue

TWO incidents of babies abandoned by their birth mothers reached the pages of the Zululand Observer last week and touched the hearts of readers and journalists alike.

The one, a girl as pretty as a button, made front page when she was found inside a duffel bag, left by her young mother with a street vendor in Empangeni.

She is healthy and for the time being at a place of safety, where

she will hopefully find a family to cherish and protect her.

The other, two year-old Matthew Theunissen, is a happy toddler with an infectious laugh and a zest for life, even though he has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and is quadriplegic.

Matthew was abandoned shortly after birth at the Empangeni War Memorial Hospital, but was adopted into a tight-knit family who lavishes him with love and leaves no stone unturned to ensure the best care and development opportunities for their son.

These two children are the fortunate ones.

While both were at least left in the care of responsible people who could and did follow the right channels, countless others are found dead or alive in pit toilets or simply cast into the crocodile infested rivers of Zululand.

Some end up in the clutches of illegal adoption syndicates or worse, become victims of organ trafficking.

Desperation

What drives a mother to abandon her own child? Who can be so alone in the world that they do not have a single relative or friend to turn to in their hour of need?

Are these women heartless? Do they deserve only scorn and contempt of society or do their actions indicate utter desperation, rather than cruelty?

The phenomena of child abandonment in South Africa is also an indictment against us as a society and the level of care vulnerable members of the community can expect to receive from dysfunctional state departments, health care facilities and bankrupt NPOs.

Poverty, unemployment, poor education and HIV/Aids are ravishing households, while fraud, corruption and theft at the Department of Social Development pilfer the available State funds.

Young girls often fall pregnant as a result of rape by strangers of family members and hide the pregnancy because of shame or fear that they will be kicked out of their homestead.

Many girls are sexually exploited by older men in return for small mercies such as transport to school, but once a pregnancy results from the relationship, the father disappears, leaving an unsupported child to take care of a child.

Child-headed households are increasingly common, while children of working parents are often unsupervised for hours, which inevitably leads to sexual experimentation at a very young age.

It is hardly imaginable how harrowing an unplanned pregnancy can be for a young girl with no financial means, no employment prospects, no support structures and no sound parental advice.

Concealment of birth and child abandonment is a crime and carries a jail sentence.

And so it should.

But, before we shout ‘Hang them!’ let us not forget that true justice require the scales to be weighed carefully, considering the personal circumstances of the offender and blending punishment with mercy and opportunity for reconciliation to the community.