News

Three South African police officers helped a doctor delivered little baby Gift Skolpati at the gates of a hospital on September 7.

By James Tweedie

The officers had been dispatched to a picket line outside Grey hospital in King William's Town in the Eastern Cape province towards the end of South Africa's recent three-week public sector strike, which shutdown schools, hospitals and government offices across the country.

They were policing the protest when they heard the agonised cries of 18year-old mother-to-be Luyelwa Skolpati, who was giving birth on the pavement outside the hospital.

Ms Skolpati had been turned away from the hospital, which had been almost completely shut down by the strike, after travelling twelve miles from her family home in the township of Dimbaza.

Police officers Captain Nkosazana Tyamara and constables Vuyiseka Sampong and Konkani Poni rushed to the women's aid. They assisted an unidentified doctor in delivering the baby and cutting the umbilical cord, before bearing Ms Skolpati and little baby Mbasa – which means “a gift” – on a stretcher into Grey Hospital.

The mother and child were later transferred to the maternity ward at Bhisho Hospital, north of King William's Town.

Ms Skolpati told a visiting journalist from the provincial Daily Dispatch newspaper at her home in Dimbaza that she was “grateful” that her baby had been delivered safely, despite the unusual circumstances.

“I was already having contractions when I left my home at about 8am that morning,” she said.

Ms Skolpati said that when she and her mother arrived at Grey hospital, “security guards told us that there were no staff and that we should go to Bhisho Hospital.”

The new mum said she had barely made her way from the hospital entrance to the front gate whenshe went into labour.

Ms Skolpati recalled that she was worried that her baby would be injured throughout the delivery. “But they delivered him safely,” she said thankfully.

Skolpati and her newborn child had to wait for four hours at Grey hospital before an ambulance arrived to take them to Bhisho hospital.

Captain Tyamara, who visited Skolpati and her “gift of the strike” on the same day as the Dispatch reporter, said that she was “proud” of herself and her constables for their swift actions.

“I did what anyone in my situation would have done. The doctor who assisted was wonderful.We are claiming the baby,” she said.

Police spokesperson Captain Thozama Solani added: “I hope the public will see from this that the police are not only there to arrest people. They are also there to assist the needy and do good.”

Baby Gifts