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DNA tests delay Happy's case

2003-06-17 10:57

Pretoria - The children's court case to establish the true identity and parents of Happy Sindane, the teenager who claims to be white and was raised in a township by a black family, was postponed on Tuesday to July 15.

Magistrate Marthinus Kruger postponed the matter to give police forensic scientists the time needed to complete DNA tests that would help clarify questions before the court.

Court spokesperson Heinrich Augustyn said Happy would also start going to school on Tuesday at the place of safety where he was staying.

According to reports, Happy has not been to school for some years. He will also undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Meanwhile, Pretoria police reported on Tuesday that another potential parent had come forward.

Inspector Percy Morekane said Modjadji Salome Brown, 48, of Moteti in Dennilton, Mpumalanga, claimed last week that Happy was her son from a relationship with a white man.

She said he was born in November 1984, but his father disappeared with him in 1991 after the couple had a fight.

Morokane said Brown approached them last Monday.

A statement and DNA samples were taken the next day.

Age determined by experts

The police added that plans were at an advanced stage to visit Zimbabwe to collecting DNA samples from Happy's alleged half-brother, Zwelakhe, 16.

His father, Jabulani Nleya, 43, was a former boyfriend of the late Rina Mziyaya, whose family claims she is Happy's mother.

Mleya said Happy was born in June 1984 and was not 16 as determined by medical experts. He said Sindane's real name was Abi Xolani Mziyaya.

Happy caused a worldwide media sensation in May when he told Bronkhorstpruit police that he was abducted from a white family by a black woman when he was six.

He said he was brought up by a black family in the KwaMhlanga area, north of Pretoria.

Last month, Tozi Ben, who is Mziyaya's cousin, told police that Happy could be Mziyaya's son.

She said Mziyaya, who died last year, had a son with the white owner of a Fourways smallholding.

Ben said she raised Sindane until 1989 when she could no longer care for him because of injuries she had had in an accident.

Happy was then reportedly returned to Mziyaya who sent him to stay with a friend who had a son of the same age.

Mleya told the Sowetan that the teenager's father had since sold his smallholding and did not know his whereabouts.

Police say other people are still coming forward claiming to be Happy's parents.

Blood samples have been taken from a Pretoria couple who also believe they are the parents of the teenager.

Jan-Hendrik and Sarie Botha's son, Jannie, disappeared from Danville, a Pretoria suburb in 1992.

A woman who lives in a village near Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape has claimed to be Sindane's aunt.

An unidentified white family in Johannesburg is also claiming Happy as their own.

Kruger, addressing a press conference after a children's court inquiry into Happy's identity in May, said the youth insisted in court his parents were white.

Protected under Child Care Act

"Although that might be true, according to the balance of probabilities, he does not look like he comes from a white family," Kruger said at the time.

Kruger also ruled that Happy was a juvenile in need of protection under the Child Care Act.

In another development on Tuesday, the Gauteng department of social services and population development called on Dulux, a paint company, to withdraw an advertisement that appeared in various newspapers bearing the face of the teenager.

"We believe the ads are, indeed, inappropriate and distasteful and undermine rights of children," said Gauteng social srvices MEC Angie Motshekga.

Her department was also in a process of formally laying a charge with the commissioner of children as well as with the Bureau of Advertising Standards.

- SAPA

inside news24

Latest comment in South Africa

pawsaw says... I think it is sad that 64% are still angry enough with FW for doing the right thing that they would deny their own language.Your language is who you are and your culture and I believe it should be fought for. I think perhaps many of the people who were against this did not understand the poll question correctly and had a kneejerk reaction and those who did understand believe that he should have ensured the survival by speaking up before now. I am proud that my country has 11 or 13 official languages and that now I can associate with whoever Ilike regardless of language/colour/religious affiliation and have the freedom to do so.That wasn't so before 1994 and I was deeply ashamed that it was so and made the choice to align myself with Africa when I had a legal right to British Citizenship which means that I now have no family of my own in the country as they have all gone abroad so that they can work and support their mother here so that I can continue in my own small way to contribute understanding and help build up my country. In life one can carry all the wrongs and hurts ever done to you and your family with you all your life but doing that will ultimately ruin and shorten YOUR life. You are only a victim if you allow yourself to be by hanging onto things which are hurting you more than the people who are long dead. We all have a choice whether we love or hate and loving those we share a country with is so much easier and nicer and productive than harping on what their ancestors did to our ancestors. White people could and have learned from Africans as have Africans from whites. United we could change the world; constantly focussing on the past we are falling flat on our faces. It is never too late to save something like your culture and language. It is part of what I love about Mzansi, we still have a chance to make a difference to the world and retain who we are. The whites who have either chosen to remain or have nowhere else to go should look just as far as the African people they know and reach out and help educate them should they desire it and language is the key. It should not be a one way street.Let us preserve and maintain our rich diversity and respect our differences and learn from one another. The superpowers out there are just waiting to step in and they are not all of British or Dutch descent. Several people here have spoken of Mandarin for they ARE the greatest threat and the most commonly spoken language in the world. They are also very clever and totally ruthless. They learn English (the language of business) and they appear to be amazingly generous and make naive people believe that they are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. Payback time WILL come and when it does you will have nowhere to run. They practise 1 child only families so f your culture demands that there should be a boy child and your first child is a girl, what do you do? Millions of perfectly healthy girl babies are abandoned by parents to die because they wish to follow their custom. They require land and resources so they give support to countries with those things. They are not doing it for you they are doing it for their own people and placing you in servitude and secretly colonising you. Be afraid, be very afraid because when they see the time is ripe they will come in and wipe you out without batting an eye. Effectively they will do what British imperialism did in America. If you do not submit to their will you will just be destroyed and the few remnants will be so grateful to be spared that they will bow the knee and find themselves in reserves like the native American Indians. Let us talk to one another respectfully and share ideas on how to prevent this happening. We can't do this unless we use language we can all understand and that is our country which we have in common and love. Let's start today. Read the article...

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