E Cape family claims Happy

2003-05-29 07:18

East London - An East London daily says it has tracked down what appears to be the real family of the teenager in the centre of a saga that has caught the imagination of the entire country.

Tucked away in a small village near Stutterheim, Happy Sindane's "family" told the Daily Dispatch in an interview that they wanted the 16-year old to return to the Eastern Cape.

"I want Happy to come home," said Patricia Mzayiya, sister of Rina Mzayiya - who, the newspaper says, is widely believed to be Happy's biological mother.

The 16-year-old teenager hit the headlines over a week ago when he arrived at a police station east of Pretoria and claimed he had been kidnapped by a domestic worker when six years old from white parents.

He could allegedly only speak Ndebele and limited Afrikaans.

The teen is now in a place of safety and in the midst of a custody furore with four parties - apart from the Stutterheim family - claiming that he is their son.

Pretoria police spokesperson Percy Morokane said three blood samples had been taken and a fourth was expected to be taken on Wednesday to see if they matched Happy's DNA.

Last week Mzayiya, 44, stated under oath at the Stutterheim Police Station that Sindane was her nephew - after a photograph in the Dispatch convinced her that he was her sister's child.

"A relative gave me a copy of the paper and showed me the picture and I was very happy when I saw it," she said.

"I didn't know where my sister's child was and I knew that I had to find him." The boy was known as "Ebby" in Cenyu Village which was confirmed by numerous residents who remembered a small white boy as Rina's son.

Mzayiya said in the statement: "I know Happy very well, he was my sister's son and I was living with him in Cenyu Village, Stutterheim."

Her sister, Rina, had allegedly been in love with her Gauteng-based employer, a German white man called Moses, and gave birth to a "white child" in Thembisa Hospital near Randburg in the 1980s.

Happy was brought to Cenyu as a month-old infant to live with his grandmother, and is well remembered.

"They used to call him mlungu," said Amahlati municipal manager Chris Magwangqana, 45, who has vague recollections of the boy.

Once lived in Stutterheim

Magwangqana and the Amahlati special programmes officer Loyiso Simon helped the Daily Dispatch track down Mzayiya after the newspaper learned that the teenager once lived in Stutterheim.

Mzayiya told reporters that Happy was taken back to Johannesburg by Rina's twin Irene after about five years. Rina subsequently went missing and a friend of Irene's took the child to KwaNdebele.

The police statement reads: "The child went missing while he was playing with another child from KwaNdebele of her friend. After that my sister was also missing."

When asked why Rina would have abandoned her child, she said: "She was young herself and could not take care of the child."

Media reports state that the child lived with the Sindane family north east of Pretoria for 12 years and could only speak Xhosa when he arrived.

Mzayiya stated that she thought her sister was dead due to a drinking problem she had in 1999. Her last attempt to track Happy was seven months ago when she attended Irene's funeral.

Now, she wants her nephew to return.

"I want him to come home," she said. "This is his home and he can stay here with us."

Stutterheim policeman, Inspector Harrison Mjoni said there had been no follow-up since he faxed Mzayiya's statement on Friday to the Child Protection Unit investigating officer in KwaNdebele.

Morokane said Happy's investigation was at an advanced stage.

The Stutterheim claim was being taken seriously and would be investigated.

There was the possibility that Mzayiya would donate a blood sample if she availed herself, he said.

The Bronkhorstspruit Magistrate's Court said on Monday that Sindane's claim to be the kidnapped son of white parents raised by a black family in rural Mpumalanga may be true,

Magistrate Marthinus Kruger, addressing a press conference after a Children's Court inquiry into Sindane's identity, said Happy insisted in court that his parents were white.

"Although that might be true, according to the balance of probabilities he does not look like he comes from a white family," Kruger said.

"We will wait for DNA test results which will be presented in court at a later date."

- SAPA