JOHANNESBURG As the battle to recover a Zimbabwean child illegally adopted by a South African woman continues, The Zimbabwean this week got a report from a social worker giving the childs biological parents the all-clear to have her.As was reported by The Zimbabwean on June 22, baby Sharon Shyleen Mudarikwa, whose mother and grandfather lived among the over 3 000 refugees inside the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, was clandestinely given up for adoption by an official at a Salvation Army branch in Johannesburg.
The grandfather – Edmond Masarakufa and his daughter, Petronella, the childs mother, had gone to buy reasonably-priced clothes and seek donations from the Salvation Army, after the childs father had emptied the house while Petronella had been detained in hospital after delivery.
The two were then duped into leaving the child at the church, after an official known as Sherriffa had told them that the Methodist Church was not conducive for a baby and promised that the child would be kept under foster care at the Salvation Army. She promised that they would be allowed to see or take back the child when they wished to, but has since refused them access to her.
The child has since been forcefully adopted by a South African woman, Sinah Mahlangu, who was initially introduced to them as a caregiver at the churchs foster care facility later discovered to be non-existent.
Jane Swanepoel, a social worker at the Roodepoort Child and Family Welfare society, which worked in cahoots with the Salvation Army to have the child clandestinely adopted, recently told our reporter that the childs mother was nowhere to be seen when social workers were looking for her to make an assessment, but a report made available to ***The Zimbabwean ***this week states otherwise.
The two-page Home Circumstances Report, dated May 5 2010 and addressed to Jermaine, was compiled by Jermaine Ngwenya, a social worker with the Marshaltown-based Johannesburg Child Welfare Society.
The report was compiled at the request of the Roodepoort Child and Family Welfare society, which wanted an assessment of Petronellas home circumstances in order to determine if she would be able to take care of the child.
The report states that Petronella, who works as a stores assistant in Doorfontein and earns an average basic monthly salary of R1 800, can afford to take care of her child, with the assistance of the childs grandfather, a qualified handyman.
Petronella occupies a single room at a flat (address given) in Johannesburg, reads part of the report.
The place has a common bathroom and kitchen which she shares with the other tenants. The family belongs to Winners Chapel International Church.the family believes in God and Petronella is said and observed to be physically and psychologically healthy.
The social worker gave the Zimbabwean family a clean bill of health and recommended that they be given back the child.
Petronella is willing and able to have her child back in her care. Petronella and her father believe that they can take good care of the child since Petronella is now employed and earns a fair amount of money to help in the upbringing of the child concerned, continued the report.
The paternal grandfather of the child is a plumber and usually does temporary jobs. This, he believes, can also help contribute towards taking care of the child concerned. Petronella occupies a space suitable and conducive for the upbringing of the child.
Petronella feels that taking her child away from her care will be very unfair since there are many other mothers living with their children under the same roof as her. I recommend that Sharon Shyleen Mudarikwa be returned to the custody of her mother.
The case is now set to be heard at the Roodepoort Magistrates court.
Post published in: Politics