- In 1999, a metal box called the “Door of Hope” was installed at a church in Johannesburg, offering birth mothers in crisis a safer way to leave their babies. Over 25 years, hundreds of newborns have been left there.
- This method, known as “safe relinquishment”, is meant to give mothers a way to deposit babies anonymously and without fear of judgment and punishment if they’re unable to look after them. But South Africa’s laws don’t recognise this practice.
- Now, a group called Baby Savers South Africa is taking the Gauteng department of social development (DSD) to court for banning baby savers. DSD argues the boxes promote abandonment and child trafficking.
- But, some experts say, with around 3 500 babies abandoned in this country each year, the government’s money would be best spent giving practical help to mothers in the form of a maternal support grant.
In today’s newsletter, our Health Beat team finds out what happens when compassion and bureaucracy collide. Sign up for our newsletter today.
Anna-Maria van Niekerk is Bhekisisa’s news editor. She joined the centre after six years as the managing editor of the investigative television show, Carte Blanche. Anna-Maria has an extensive career in in-depth health and human rights reporting and has been named both the Vodacom Journalist (2002) and Discovery Health Journalist of the Year (2010) for exposés on the selling of human body parts for muti in Limpopo and the devastating consequences of HIV denialism.
Mia Malan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Bhekisisa. She has worked in newsrooms in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Washington, DC, winning more than 30 awards for her radio, print and television work.
Jessica Pitchford is Bhekisisa's TV and multimedia editor. She's been a journalist since the early nineties and has reported on some pivotal events in South Africa’s political history, such as the country’s transition to democracy and the work of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.
Yolanda Mdzeke was a junior multimedia reporter and multimedia reporter at Bhekisisa between March 2021 and June 2025.
Thatego Mashabela was a multimedia producer at Bhekisisa from February 2024 to October 2025.
