DNA may solve lost-boy saga

2003-05-21 08:02

Marietie Louw

Pretoria - Could Happy Sindane be Jannie Botha from Danville in Pretoria?

Sarie Botha, 45, the mother of the Jannie who disappeared in March 1992, says she "hope so from the bottom of my heart".

The Pretoria police unit for family violence, child protection and sexual offences was battling with the same question after Happy, 18, arrived at Bronkhorstspruit police station.

Captain Carel Cornelius says police are investigating whether Happy possibly could be Jannie.

Police are doing DNA tests on both Happy's and Jannie's parents to determine whether he is indeed the missing child from Danville.

Sarie said she had not believed for one moment that her son could have been dead after he disappeared.

"I knew always that he was alive... I will be so happy if it does turn out to be him (her son)."

Jannie's brother, Pieter, 27, is convinced the young man who appeared on Beeld newspaper's front page is none other than his brother.

And, a neighbour said: "The eyes (of Jannie and the youth in the paper) are the same."

There was a rumour he had been kidnapped

Jannie went missing after playing videogames with two friends at a café in 1992. He was in grade 1 at Danville Primary School.

Sarie said she got worried when her son didn't come home for supper that night.

Rumours had it that four white men had kidnapped Jannie.

Happy told police that he was six years old when he went to a café with their domestic worker.

She left him with contract workers along the way and he stayed there for three days.

Pieter said there was construction work under way at a bridge near their house when his brother disappeared. They also had a domestic worker at the time, but he could not remember her name.

Happy said Betty Sindane and her friend, Tom Banda, took him to a police station.

"I was very young, afraid and stupid. I said I wanted to go with these people (Sindane)," said Happy.

When he told his story to police on Monday, the slightly-built, brown-eyed, blond teen said he remembered little of his real family, but has a "movie-like" memory of what has happened to him since the day he was asked by "Rina" to go with her to the shops.

The teenager remembers his family was Afrikaans-speaking and lived in Johannesburg.

He also remembers he was born on May 4 1985, and that he had a small dog as a pet.

The youth told police he saw his picture on television sometime between 1994 and 1999. Police are following this lead as part of their investigation.

The teenager speaks fluent Ndebele and has a limited understanding of Sotho and Afrikaans.

Happy said he lived with Sindane and Banda in Verena, Mpumalanga, for about a year.

When they split up, he went to live with Betty, her three children and a number of other relatives' children with her father, Koos Sindane, in Tweefontein.

There he attended Khuthalano Primary School, enduring initial teasing by the other children because of his race.

This stopped when he told them he did not like being called a white person.

Saw himself featured on television

Happy said a woman teacher and neighbours offered a number of times to help him, but they were all too scared of his grandfather.

He remembered seeing his picture during a television programme.

When he pointed out it was him in the photograph, Betty allegedly threw him against a wall, ordering him never to watch television again.

Happy said he wrote down his real name on a piece of paper, which he has since lost.

The teenager told on Monday night how he was treated as a "slave" by his grandfather when Betty left for Tembisa with her mother to get medical treatment. He later discovered she had died.

Happy said he left school in grade five to become a herdboy for his grandfather. He also had to do menial tasks around the homestead.

He said he was beaten when he did anything wrong, and was made to look for animals that went missing - sometimes through the night.

Dropped off at police station

The teenager left home last year when his grandfather allegedly started threatening to poison him.

After spending about three months working on an orange farm, he returned home.

The threats continued until Friday, when he went to seek help from a female friend in Tweefontein.

He said one of the women who had offered to help him in the past took him to Zithobeni. She dropped him at the police station on Monday. - Sapa and the Natal Witness

- Beeld