Babies for sale in JHB

For a while now I have been watching women with babies on their back at intersections – begging. Obviously I was sympathetic towards them but I was at the same time worried about the children that they brought with them – children being beaten by the sun for 12hrs and they look quite listless. So I was torn between giving money  -  thus encouraging this but at the same it  could be the only way that child could get food.  At one point I looked at one of the women, and saw that the child on her back was rather small and not really moving. They had warm clothes on them and a beanie covering their head and almost the whole face – I thought that this was unhealthy as it was quite warm. When I looked closely at the ‘baby’ I realised that it was a doll. I laughed and shook my head. For a while I have not been very comfortable about this practise.  Now I know why – Eye Witness News (702) has broken a story that these children are being rented out for R20 a day by their mothers – others are being sold for R30 000 to desperate infertile couples and to Nigerians. When I heard this on the radio, I wanted to cry. Surely, one person said that in order to drive you must have a license, but and FOOL can have a child.

Here is what Eye Witness News reported:
As National Child Protection Week begins on Monday, a joint Eyewitness News/Carte Blanche investigation has revealed impoverished women in the Johannesburg city centre are not only renting out their children but are also selling their babies.

Last week, Eyewitness News revealed that foreigners, mostly illegal Zimbabweans, are renting their infants and toddlers to beggars for as little as R20 a day.

Doctors also alleged that many of these children were being intentionally drugged and harmed to garner increased sympathy from motorists. READ MORE

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