Baby abandonment crisis deepens as welfare groups blame social development department

Nadene Grabham, Co-founder of BabySavers SA, discusses the abandonment of infants in South Africa.

The tragedy and prevalence of baby abandonment in South Africa has been highlighted again with the discovery of a newborn - dumped in a plastic bag - near the Jukskei River in Alexandra.

There has been a rise in cases of infants being abandoned, and child welfare organisations place the blame on the Department of Social Development in Gauteng. They say the department’s ongoing attempts to shut down facilities that have baby saver boxes where parents can safely and anonymously leave their babies - have exacerbated the problem.

Nadene Grabham, co-founder of BabySavers SA, a coalition of organisations that offer baby savers, says baby abandonment has been a crisis for many years. Statistics recorded in 2010 and 2016 showed that around 3,500 babies are unsafely abandoned in South Africa every year.

However, the Department of Social Development insists the devices are illegal and issued a directive to this effect in 2023.

Door of Hope, which offers the boxes in Berea, Johannesburg, refused to stop using them and DSD threatened to shut them down.

This sparked court action by Door of Hope and BabySavers SA.

The Pretoria High Court offered Door of Hope and other BabySaver SA members a lifeline, granting an interim order for them to continue using baby saver boxes.

Grabham says they will be back in court on the 26th of January when they hope the interim order will be extended until the main matter is heard in May. Then, they will be challenging the validity of the Children's Act which does not recognise safe relinquishment as one of the options that a mother may use.

To listen to Nadene Grabham in conversation with 702's John Perlman, click the audio player below.