Xingwana, nephew lose court bid
2013-03-03 16:56
Lubabalo Ngcukana, City Press
Johannesburg - A furious high court judge has ordered that a child
fathered by the nephew of Cabinet minister Lulu Xingwana be returned
to her mother by next Thursday.
The two-year-old child, who cannot be named, was taken by Xingwana
and her nephew from her mother’s care in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape, in
terms of an interim order granted by Mthatha High Court Judge Zamani
Nhlangulela on 1 February.
But Judge Buyiswa Majiki on Friday turned the tables, ordering that
the child be returned to her home in Mqanduli because the mother did not
have access to her daughter.
The little girl is currently staying in Xingwana’s ministerial residence in Pretoria.
Xingwana is the minister of women, children and people with disabilities.
Lilla Crouse, a senior Legal Aid SA lawyer representing the child’s
mother, argued before Judge Majiki that the child was being denied a
bond she had developed since birth - being with her mother.
Crouse said it was not disputed that the mother had been the child’s
primary caregiver for most of her life, when the father was nowhere to
be found.
Arnie Immerman, representing Xingwana’s nephew, argued that the child
would be better off living in Pretoria where she was “receiving the
best of everything”, from medical benefits to schooling facilities.
At one point, an angry Judge Majiki adjourned for Immerman to come up
with a reasonable explanation for why the child was not in court, as
per the judge’s instructions.
Last month, City Press reported how Xingwana and her nephew, flanked
by two bodyguards and three police officers, took the toddler from her
distraught grandmother.
A final order will be made by Majiki on 15 March.
