Pauline Maganga a mother from Johannesburg, South Africa, received a 10-year prison sentence for selling her two-day-old child with the intention of having him trafficked to Australia.
Whether the buyer intended to sell the kid again after arriving in Australia was not something the court could ascertain.
Magistrate Lazini Ncube harshly condemned the mother, Pauline Maganga, for participating in an activity reminiscent of the outlawed slave trade. The mother’s decision to sell the child rather than seek legal adoption was condemned by Magistrate Ncube, who also emphasized the mother’s obligation to protect her child.
Maganga’s crime was premeditated, therefore even though the courts usually give first-time female criminals a light sentence, she deserved a harsh one. Prior contact via a WhatsApp group was engaged in the transaction, demonstrating Maganga’s knowledge and intentional intent to sell her baby.
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Through a WhatsApp group, Maganga kept in touch with Janet Marimo in May of last year while she was expecting. Maganga promised to sell her child for R25,000, as per their agreement. Maganga told Marimo that she had given birth on June 24 at the Far East Rand Hospital in Krugersrus Springs, Johannesburg. After paying a portion of the agreed upon cash, Marimo picked up the infant and its clinic card two days later.
Using a fictitious name, Marimo traveled from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth with the infant in order to evade police discovery. They kept trying to get hold of the baby’s birth certificate so they could get travel documents, but they were never successful. As a result, Marimo sneaked the child into Zimbabwe, where the Department of Social Welfare took custody of it after Marimo was caught there.
Maganga went to Zimbabwe to get her child after learning of Marimo’s imprisonment, but it was discovered that she had fraudulently reported the baby’s death not long after delivery. She was arrested after a DNA test proved she was the mother.
