Cape mother arrives at police station after search

By Tando Mfengwana
15 March 2007

Several days after an 18-month-old baby was discovered by Athlone police and a group of security officers in Carnie Road in Rylands Estate, the mother arrived.

Thirty-eight-year-old, Nita Bleeaw, a domestic worker at a house in Carnie Road, had left her baby girl in the care of a couple on the same premises while she did her chores.

The baby, dubbed Mary-Ann, crawled unnoticed out of the house and disappeared.

A task team was assembled by Athlone police to search for the mother, soon after the baby was found crawling over Carnie Road at about 7pm on Friday.

But the search was unsuccessful, and the baby was sent to a place of safety in Langa .

Social workers took the infant for a medical check-up to a city hospital before taking her to the Children’s Court in Wynberg, and then returned her to the Langa place of safety.

Athlone police spokesperson Andre Ventre told reporters that the baby would not be given back to Bleeaw because social workers were still investigating the issue.