A guest at the luxury beachfront Maharani Hotel, has been arrested for kidnapping over the brief disappearance of the 3-year-old son of another guest.
The child's mother, Nabeela (surname withheld for protection of the child who is a minor), had come to Durban from Pretoria for a wedding. She said she had noticed the boy was missing after the adults in her family and another were busy with evening prayers and their children had been running around in the passage.
"I walked past the rooms looking for him, calling his name and, while I was outside one door, I heard a child crying. It sounded like his cry," she said.
"First I said 'Open up, my son is in there' and it became quiet. Then I started banging on the door and the woman inside refused to open it."
The mother claims that the woman said her child had come into her room but she refused to let him out. Eventually, a member of the hotel management came and opened the door with a master key, the mother said.
"If I hadn't caught her in time, my child could have been gone."
She said the woman had hidden her face with a scarf once she was apprehended.
Then, the mother said, a second woman staying on another floor of the hotel appeared concerned about the first woman being in trouble and remarked that her "colleague" would never "kidnap" a child.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said the suspect appeared in the Durban magistrate's court last Monday [Feb 26].
Priya Naidoo, spokesperson for the Tsogo Sun hotel group, confirmed that a charge of kidnapping had been laid by a guest at the Elangeni and Maharani Hotel after a child apparently wandered into another guest's room.
"Hotel staff intervened and supported the family and the incident was swiftly resolved. The SAPS is investigating. We would like to emphasise that the safety of our guests is of paramount importance," said Naidoo.
The child's mother added that hotel security staff had escorted the second woman, believed to be an accomplice, back to her room. The mother said that she immediately looked for alternative accommodation in Durban for fear of the incident reoccuring.
She could not be reached to establish whether she had succeeded in doing so at the time of going to press.
*The Laudium Sun is aware of the name of the child and the family, but due to the child being a minor, these names have been withheld.
- Sourced