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