HARARE – An Epworth woman who confessed to stealing a newborn baby from Epworth Poly Clinic for ritual purposes and gave a false name after she was busted, was denied bail on Friday.
Christina Gwashavanhu, 35, who is of no fixed abode, was not asked to plead when she appeared before Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi facing a kidnapping charge.
She will be back in court in two weeks for routine remand.
Gwashavanhu’s real name was revealed in court after she gave arresting officers a false identity on Wednesday, telling them she was Josie Kanzimbe aged 28.
The court heard that on June 23, Gwashavanhu, “who was not the lawful custodian, unlawfully took an infant and deprived him of his freedom of bodily movement intending to cause deprivation or realising that there is real risk or possibility that such deprivation might result.”
The woman, prosecutors said, took advantage of the mother of the baby who was fast asleep due to labour fatigue and stole the infant while dressed in staff attire, pretending to be one of them.
After she was intercepted by an alert guard, Gwashavanhu told officials at the clinic that she intended to kill the baby and then trade its head for a commuter omnibus with a customer who deals in baby heads in South Africa.
Some have questioned her mental stability.
