Organisations rescuing abandoned babies are fighting to keep their doors open after the government threatened to shut them down and remove children from their care.
Baby Savers SA, under which rescue organisations such as Door of Hope fall, secured a reprieve last week in their ongoing battle with the Gauteng social development department when the Pretoria high court extended a protection order they had taken out against the department to shield them from imminent closure.
The urgent interdict, first granted last year, came after the department threatened to shut down long-standing childcare organisations such as the Door of Hope, which has been rescuing abandoned babies for more than 25 years.
The department said the use of Baby Saver’s specialised boxes, where desperate mothers can safely and anonymously leave unwanted infants, was illegal.
The court order deems Door of Hope and other members of Baby Savers SA as legally registered until the main case is heard. The order prevents the department from removing children from their care or interfering with their operations. The matter is set to be heard on January 26.
At the heart of the fight is whether the “safe relinquishment” of babies through Baby Saver’s boxes should be criminalised.
Whitney Rosenberg, spokesperson for Baby Savers SA, argued that while abandonment should remain a crime, mothers who choose a safe option should not be prosecuted.
The safe relinquishment of babies in baby saver boxes poses a risk of child trafficking, the sale of babies, and the like, as it is done in secret without anyone being able to verify whether a baby was sold by the mother or ‘safely relinquished.
— Bathembu Futshane
“We are not trying to decriminalise abandonment,” she said. “We are saying that if a desperate mother chooses a baby saver, she is making a conscious decision to save her child’s life. Right now, too many babies are being dumped in fields, toilets, and dustbins, where they don’t survive. This is about giving children the right to life first.”
Rosenberg said Baby Savers SA has about 40 baby-saver devices installed at child care centres, orphanages and safe houses across the country.
Each saver is a secure metal box built into a wall. When a baby is placed inside, the device automatically triggers an alarm alerting caregivers on site, who respond within minutes. From there, a social worker is immediately contacted and takes over the statutory processes.
“Once a baby is received in a saver, it’s not just left there,” Rosenberg explained. “A child protection social worker is called, all details are recorded, and the matter is reported to the department of social development. The social worker then applies for a court order for temporary placement. After a 60-day notice period, during which biological parents can come forward, the child can be declared legally adoptable. Our role ends once the child is safely in the system.”
Rosenberg said research estimates are that about 3,500 babies are abandoned in SA every year, with two out of three found too late because they died after being disposed of. Baby savers, Rosenberg insisted, provide a critical lifeline.
“We are the safe bridge between desperate mothers and social workers. In the veld or in a dustbin, a baby will almost certainly die. In a saver, that same baby survives.”
However, the social development department maintains that safe relinquishment amounts to abandonment. Spokesperson Bathembu Futshane said the practice carries risks of child trafficking and fraud.
“Child abandonment is a criminal offence. The safe relinquishment of babies in baby saver boxes poses a risk of child trafficking, the sale of babies, and the like, as it is done in secret without anyone being able to verify whether a baby was sold by the mother or ‘safely relinquished’,” Futshane said.
“What if the receiver of the ‘safely’ relinquished babies indicates that no baby was received, while in fact the opposite applies? If an alarm rings when a baby is placed in the baby saver, what would happen if the alarm is faulty and a two-day-old baby chokes alone in the box? It is on these grounds that the department discourages the use of ‘baby savers’.
“The department encourages people who do not want babies to abstain from sex, prevent [pregnancy by using birth control], abort or hand over a baby to social workers for adoption.”
But child rescue organisations say mothers are being turned away from hospitals and social workers when they seek help.
Nadene Grabham, operations director at Door of Hope, said: “We receive daily calls from mothers in crisis who say nobody will help them. Some are told to just go home and parent. What harm will it be to add baby savers as another option [for adoption]? Is it not better to receive a baby alive through a baby saver than to find that same baby dead in a pit toilet?”
Door of Hope cares for 60 children, many of whom came through baby saver boxes. The organisation insists that intakes follow the same statutory processes as those for any other abandoned child, and that their role is simply to provide a safe entry point.
“Until systemic issues like poverty, gender-based violence, and rape are solved, we need life-saving measures,” Grabham said. “These children deserve to live.”
SowetanLIVE
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.