Happy: Reunion will be difficult

2003-05-22 10:28

Alet Rademeyer

Pretoria - The reunion of Happy Sindane, 18, who has roamed the townships for about 12 years, with his biological parents, Sarie and Jan-Hendrik Botha, will be a "very difficult" process.

Dr Lanette Hattingh, a clinical psychologist from Johannesburg, said Happy and his family would have difficulty adapting.

She said the language problem between them - with the parents speaking Afrikaans and Happy who speaks only Ndebele - would cause a great deal of frustration.

Hattingh said it wasn't so strange that Happy spoke only Ndebele, as he could have lost his Afrikaans-language ability if it wasn't well developed at the time he was allegedly abducted.

The fact that Happy, who cannot read or write, performed poorly at school apparently has nothing to do with his language confusion, but could point to other learning problems.

Unconditional acceptance is important

Hattingh said Happy was probably badly traumatised and he and his family would need "intensive counselling".

She suggested that Happy first be placed somewhere else, such as in foster care, to allow him to be re-united with his family gradually.

Happy and his family would have to communicate through hand signals, but they would have to learn one another's language. "Unconditional acceptance is very important," she said.

She said Happy's biological family would first have to be assessed before he was returned to their home.

"It would be unfair to place him in a situation where he was worse off than before."

- Beeld