Kidnap scare at Maharani Hotel

A GUEST at the luxury beachfront Maharani Hotel has been arrested for kidnapping over the brief disappearance of the 3-year-old son of another guest.

The child’s mother, who did not wish to be named, had come to Durban from Pretoria for a wedding. She said she had noticed the boy was missing after the adults in her family and another were busy with evening prayers and their children had been running around in the passage.

“I walked past the rooms looking for him, calling his name and, while I was outside one door, I heard a child crying. It sounded like his cry,” she said.

“First I said ‘Hello, open up, my son is in there’ and it became quiet. Then I started banging on the door and the woman inside refused to open it.”

The mother claimed that the woman had said her child had come into her room but she refused to let him out.

Eventually, a member of the hotel management came and opened the door with a master key, the mother said.

“If I hadn’t caught her in time, my child could have been gone.”

She said the woman had hidden her face with a scarf once she was apprehended.

Then, the mother said, a second woman staying on another floor of the hotel appeared concerned about the first woman being in trouble and remarked that her “colleague” would never “kidnap” a child.

Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said a suspect would appear in the Durban magistrate’s court on Monday.

Priya Naidoo, spokesperson for the Tsogo Sun hotel group, confirmed that a charge of kidnapping had been laid by a guest at the Elangeni and Maharani after a child apparently wandered into another guest’s room.

“Hotel staff intervened and supported the family and the incident was swiftly resolved. The SAPS is investigating. We would like to emphasise that the safety of our guests is of paramount importance,” said Naidoo.

The child’s mother added that hotel security staff had escorted the second woman back to her room.

The mother said she had started to look for alternative accommodation in Durban. She could not be reached to establish whether she had succeeded in doing so at the time of going to press.