The high court in Pretoria has sentenced a woman to 10 years in jail after she snatched a three-month-old baby from her mother’s back and hid drugs inside the infant’s nappy.
Jabulile Masombuka, 23, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and the possession of drugs and she vowed to testify against her co-accused, her Nigerian drug dealer boyfriend Kingsley Nnadi and Thapelo Mthapo, who allegedly assisted in the kidnapping.
Her advocate said the fact that she pleaded guilty should be a mitigating factor, warranting a lesser sentence.
But the court found that the evidence was overwhelming against her and that she had little choice but to plead guilty.
It was also found that if the police did not by coincidence raid the house in Brakpan she shared with her boyfriend, they would probably never have found the baby, or the drugs.
The mother was on her way to church with her baby on her back in November 2013 when she was overpowered on a street corner in Brakpan in broad daylight, and her baby kidnapped.