White slave boy is our missing son, say family... - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

sixate · 05-21-2003, 07:08 PM

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Quote:

Slave boy is our son, say family
From Michael Dynes in Johannesburg

POLICE in South Africa are carrying out DNA tests on a white family who believe that Happy Sindane, a teenager who claims to have spent more than 11 years as a white slave in a black township, is their son, who disappeared more than a decade ago.

Sarie Botha, 45, from the working-class area of Danville in Pretoria, contacted the police as soon as she saw the photograph of the teenager in Beeld, the Afrikaans newspaper, convinced that her search for her long-lost son Jannie was over.

“I always knew that he was alive,” Mrs Botha said. “I will be so happy if it turns out to be him. I hope it is, from the bottom of my heart.”

The slightly built 18-year-old arrived at Bronkhorstspruit police station, near Pretoria, on Monday claiming that he had been kidnapped by his family’s domestic worker when he was six.

Jannie Botha disappeared, also aged six, in March 1992, after playing video games with friends at a café. No trace of him was ever found. There were rumours at the time that the boy had been kidnapped by four white men.

Heinrich Augustyn, a spokesman for South Africa’s Justice Department, confirmed that DNA tests were under way. “But it could be more than four weeks before the results are known,” he said.

Happy Sindane is being looked after in a safe house in Bronkhorstspruit and is due to appear at the local magistrates’ court on Monday. He has been deeply traumatised by his experiences, police said.

The teenager, who has been made a ward of court under the Child Protection Act, had told police that he dimly remembered being taken to the local shops by the family’s domestic worker, Rina, who gave him away to a black couple at a construction site.

Pieter Botha, 27, Jannie’s brother, told police that he remembered there being a construction site near the family home at the time when his brother disappeared. He is convinced that Happy is his brother.

Happy told police that the black couple, Betty Sindane and Tom Banda, took him to Verena in Mpumalanga Province, where they stayed for a year. When the couple split up, he went with Betty, her three children and Koos Sindane, Betty’s father, to Tweefontein township.

Happy, a fluent Ndebele-speaker, said that he remembered attending Khuthalane primary school, where he was teased for being “a white boy”.

He told police that he had always thought that the black couple were not his real parents, whom he remembered as being Afrikaans-speakers from Johannesburg. Not a day went by without him thinking about his real mother and father, he said.

Life became difficult for Happy when Betty died because his “grandfather”, Koos Sindane, treated him like a slave. The teenager told the police that he had been made to do menial tasks, was forced to leave school when he was ten to become a herd boy and was beaten harshly when he did anything wrong.

He decided to leave Tweefontein after Mr Sindane threatened to poison him. He was taken by a well-wisher to Bronkhorstspruit police station, where he told officers his extraordinary story.

An unnamed teenager from Tweefontein, who claims to be Happy’s black “brother”, said that he was very sad that Happy had decided to leave his family. “I will miss my white brother,” the teenager said. “He and I were very close since childhood, and it is very sad to learn that he has gone.”

The black teenager said that he remembered Happy arriving at his home in 1993. They became good friends, even though he knew that Happy was not his biological brother. The teenager said that he thought Happy was given to his mother by a friend in Johannesburg.

The teenager last saw his white “brother” on Saturday. “We had food ready for him at supper time, but he never returned,” the teenager said.

Black and white issues

Under the apartheid system, The Group Areas Act regulated where the different races were permitted to live and the Pass Laws restricted black movement in and out of whites-only areas. But the entire edifice of racial segregation had already begun to collapse in the mid-1980s.

South African television and radio phone-in shows have been inundated by callers expressing astonishment and outrage that Happy, who appears to have an Afrikaner heritage, had been living in a rural black community for years without anyone reporting it to the authorities. “Everyone has been captivated by this story,” Inspector Percy Morokane said.

This story is disturbing in more ways than one. First to kidnap a kid is fucking terrible. Then give the kid away to be used as a worker/slave is even more fucked up. What the hell is wrong with people? I just don't get why shit like this can still happen.

What really annoys me is in the last few sentences it says that white people were outraged that a white boy was living in a black community and it wasn't reported to authorities. Jesus fucking christ! I'll never understand racism.

MSD · 05-21-2003, 07:20 PM

I thought they dismissed the idea of white slavery as a myth. Nobody deserves to be treated like that, and anyone who keeps anyone else as a slave should be tried for violations of human rights. Most of us will never understand racism because it isn't rational, and irrational though isn't properly processed by the rational mind.

Baricua2782 · 05-21-2003, 08:25 PM

WTF !?!?!?! That's messed up

PitViper401 · 05-21-2003, 08:57 PM

I agree with MrSelfDestruct, anyone with slaves should be put in jail and made the prison biacth

Snoogans · 05-21-2003, 10:55 PM

That is so fucked up

seretogis · 05-21-2003, 11:03 PM

Well, at least he wasn't used for sex and then killed like so many others have been.. I'm sure that a lot of authorities consider him "one of the lucky ones."

Frowning Budah · 05-22-2003, 04:09 AM

I just wonder how wide spread this is?

spanky spangler · 05-22-2003, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sixate

What really annoys me is in the last few sentences it says that white people were outraged that a white boy was living in a black community and it wasn't reported to authorities. Jesus fucking christ! I'll never understand racism.

Quote:

from article
South African television and radio phone-in shows have been inundated by callers expressing astonishment and outrage that Happy, who appears to have an Afrikaner heritage, had been living in a rural black community for years without anyone reporting it to the authorities.

Where does it say say white people were outraged? I live in suburban England, and if i suddenly had, say, an Inuit 6-year old to do my housekeeping, don't you think the neighbours might be suspicious?

Ganguro · 05-22-2003, 05:14 AM

Normally.. id say "turnabout is fair play", but not so in this case.
Though I do find it highly ironic and sad at the same time.
The kid wasnt given away to be a slave, the female kidnapper took him in with her children and when she died the grandfather treated him roughly. Now i wonder what could have made then grandfather do that?....
Hmmm....

Daval · 05-22-2003, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrSelfDestruct
I thought they dismissed the idea of white slavery as a myth. Nobody deserves to be treated like that, and anyone who keeps anyone else as a slave should be tried for violations of human rights. Most of us will never understand racism because it isn't rational, and irrational though isn't properly processed by the rational mind.

Well said MrSelfDestruct. I agree with you.

sixate · 05-22-2003, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by spanky spangler
Where does it say say white people were outraged?

Who other than white people would want to notify the local authority about a white child in a black neighborhood? I don't think that black people are outraged that a white kid was around town.

spanky spangler · 05-22-2003, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sixate
Who other than white people would want to notify the local authority about a white child in a black neighborhood? I don't think that black people are outraged that a white kid was around town.

Again, who was outraged by his presence? i'm just suggesting that, without presuming your racial background, if you turned up one day with a child whose racial characteristics were totally different that yours and the people about you; wouldn't that seem strange? How would you explain it? 'Oh, yeah, this confused kid is my...er...nephew...yeah, that's it.'

05-21-2003, 08:25 PM	#3 (permalink)
Baricua2782 Insane Location: Boston	WTF !?!?!?! That's messed up __________________ "To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person." - Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

05-21-2003, 10:55 PM	#5 (permalink)
Snoogans Veteran Location: Uppsala, Sweden	That is so fucked up __________________ Internet hint: If someone's asking if what they do is weird, it always is.

05-21-2003, 11:03 PM	#6 (permalink)
seretogis Huggles, sir? Location: Seattle	Well, at least he wasn't used for sex and then killed like so many others have been.. I'm sure that a lot of authorities consider him "one of the lucky ones." __________________ seretogis - sieg heil perfect little dream the kind that hurts the most, forgot how it feels well almost no one to blame always the same, open my eyes wake up in flames

05-21-2003, 07:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	I thought they dismissed the idea of white slavery as a myth. Nobody deserves to be treated like that, and anyone who keeps anyone else as a slave should be tried for violations of human rights. Most of us will never understand racism because it isn't rational, and irrational though isn't properly processed by the rational mind.

05-21-2003, 08:57 PM	#4 (permalink)
PitViper401 Banned	I agree with MrSelfDestruct, anyone with slaves should be put in jail and made the prison biacth

05-22-2003, 04:09 AM	#7 (permalink)
Frowning Budah Slave of Fear	I just wonder how wide spread this is?

05-22-2003, 05:14 AM	#9 (permalink)
Ganguro Army of Me	Normally.. id say "turnabout is fair play", but not so in this case. Though I do find it highly ironic and sad at the same time. The kid wasnt given away to be a slave, the female kidnapper took him in with her children and when she died the grandfather treated him roughly. Now i wonder what could have made then grandfather do that?.... Hmmm....