Media gagged on 'Happy' case

2003-05-20 15:21

Pretoria - Citing the interests of the child, the Bronkhorstspruit magistrate's court on Tuesday restricted press coverage of the case of an 18-year-old white youth who claims he had been kidnapped at the age of six and raised in a township, under the Child Care Act.

Justice department spokesperson Hendrik Augustyn said the court would next week on Monday rule on the status of the youth, whose exact age was still to be determined by a medical practitioner.

Until then the youth, who went by the name of "Happy Sindane" would be housed at an unspecified place of safety.

Augustyn said the media attention the case had generated had left the youth "very traumatised."

The Bronkhorstspruit police station commissioner then applied for the Section 8 (3) order on the instruction of the head of the Pretoria Child Protection Unit.

The CPU, meanwhile, was on Tuesday continuing its investigation into the boy's identity and claims.

'Movie-like memory'

Happy arrived at the Bronkhorstspruit police station on Monday afternoon telling duty personnel there he had been kidnapped by a domestic worker at the age of six.

The slightly-built, brown-eyed, blond teen said he remembered very little of his real family, but had a "movie-like" memory of what had happened to him since the day he was asked by his family's domestic worker "Rina" to accompany 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 boy had told police he had seen his picture on television sometime between 1994 and 1999.

The police's Missing Person's Bureau was investigating that aspect of the case, Pretoria police spokesperson Inspector Percy Morokane said.

The teenager was only able to speak fluent Ndebele. He had a limited understanding of Sotho and Afrikaans.

On Monday night, Happy described the day he was kidnapped, saying Rina had taken him to a building site where she had left him with a couple - Betty Sindane and her boyfriend Tom Banda.

He had remained with them for three days before they decided to hand him over to the police. Happy said he was too scared to stay, so he left with the couple. He did not see Rina again.

Happy said he had lived with the couple in Verena in what is now Mpumalanga for about 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's J-Section.

Teased

There he had attended the Khuthalano primary school, enduring initial teasing by the other children because he was white. This had stopped when he told them he did not like being called a white person.

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

He recollected seeing his picture being displayed during a television programme. When he pointed out it was him in the photograph, Betty had allegedly thrown him against a wall, ordering him never to watch television again. Happy said he had written down his real name on a piece of paper, which he had since lost.

'Slave'

The teenager on Monday night told of how he was treated as a "slave" by his grandfather when Betty left for Tembisa with her mother to receive 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.

The teenager left home last year when his grandfather 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