Durban mother throws baby to strangers
BY BBC AFRICA NEWS
A mother who threw her baby to a crowd from a smoke-filled building in the South African coastal city of Durban has told the BBC of her gratitude to those who saved her daughter, who turns two next month.
“All I could do was trust complete strangers,” Naledi Manyoni said. She added that they were both doing well.
The building they were in was set on fire by looters.
The unrest was sparked by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.
The 79-year-old was convicted of contempt of court last month after failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency.
He handed himself in to police last Wednesday to start serving his 15-month prison sentence, but this sparked violent protests, arson attacks, and opportunistic looting in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal and spread to other cities and towns.
The government says it will deploy some 25,000 soldiers to stem the violence.
Those raiding ground-floor shops had started a fire in the building in which Ms Manyoni had been visiting her partner.
They were staying on the 16th floor of the apartment block when they noticed smoke rising.
The lift was not working because of the fire, so Ms Manyoni frantically ran down the stairs with her baby.
However, she was unable to get to the ground floor as the area was blocked.
She says she managed to squeeze through to a balcony area on the second floor where she appealed to passers-by for help.
“All I could think was to make sure my baby lived,” she said.
Firefighters arrived at the scene about 20 minutes after people in the crowd had started rescuing other residents with ladders – which is when Ms Manyoni was reunited with her daughter.
She told the BBC they managed to return to the flat at about midnight.