Happy Sindane murder: Man who claimed he was kept as white child slave in black township in South Africa is found 'stoned to death'

The 28-year-old had made international headlines in 2003, when he claimed to have been abducted from white parents and kept as a slave in a black township near Pretoria

Nastasya Tay
Wednesday 03 April 2013 00:06 BST
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Happy Sindane
Happy Sindane

In the early hours of Monday morning, in the Tweefontein township, passers-by discovered the body of a young man, apparently stoned to death, in a field.

When police began their investigation, they realised that they recognised the corpse: a young man who as distinctive in the area by the colour of his skin, as his story.

The fair-skinned 28-year-old was Happy Sindane, who made headlines 10 years ago when he walked into a police station in the town of Bronkhorspruit, north-east of Pretoria, declaring that he was white and had been kidnapped from his Afrikaner parents by a family maid when just a little boy. He said the woman had taken him to a township, where a black family had virtually enslaved him.

A four-month inquiry, including DNA testing, revealed that Sindane's story was fiction. Officials said Sindane was, in fact, likely to be the son of black domestic worker Rina Mzayiya and her white employer. He was raised by his mother's friend Betty at her request.

Police say that they have arrested a 58-year-old man, allegedly a friend of Sindane, and their investigations continue. Sindane will be buried in the family homestead on Saturday.

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