Net spreads for Happy's family

2003-06-02 15:10

Johannesburg - Police are currently attempting to track down family members of a woman who may be the mother of a teenager who claimed he was kidnapped when he was six.

"I can confirm that we have extended our investigation to other provinces. Detectives are trying to track down the family members of the alleged mother in Limpopo," said Pretoria police spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola.

Last month Happy Sindane, who appears to be a white 16-year-old, told Bronkhorstpruit police that he was abducted from a white family by a black woman. He was brought up by a black family in the KwaMhlanga area, north of Pretoria.

The Sowetan newspaper reported on Monday that a man, who fell in love with Sindane's purported mother, confirmed to police on Sunday that the teenager was the son of the late Rina Mziyaya and her white lover.

Sebola said he could not reveal what the man had told police.

He could, however, confirm that the man was helping detectives trace family members of Mziyaya who may have crucial information regarding Sindane's parents.

Jabulani Mleya, Mziyaya's former Zimbabwean boyfriend who fathered her second child, told the Sowetan that he had met the woman while she was pregnant with him.

"At the time we fell in love, she was one month pregnant and as time went on I thought I was the biological father until she gave birth in June 1984 at Tembisa hospital," he said.

"I was shocked to find out that the child was white."

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

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

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 sustained in an accident. Sindane 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.

Sebola said that many people were still coming forward claiming to be Sindane's parents. He would not say how many had claimed to be the parents.

Blood samples have been taken from a Pretoria couple who also believe that 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.

Sindane is currently staying at a place of safety in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria.

His case will go to court again on June 17.

- SAPA