Zulu boy to be taken from white 'mother'

Three Law Lords have backed the Court of Appeal in ruling that a 10-year-old Zulu boy must leave his white "mother" in London and return to his natural parents in South Africa.

On 5 March, Lord Justices Neill and Ward decided that the boy, a ward of court identified only by the initial "M"', should be returned to his native Leboa, in the Transvaal.

Now, after a private hearing, Lords Keith, Mustill and Hoffman in the House of Lords have backed that decision, and ruled that the boy be immediately returned to his natural parents; leave to appeal was refused.

The boy was brought to the UK by the white woman, a British citizen with an Afrikaans background, who wanted him to be adopted as a member of her family and to live in London and be educated at a leading British school.

His natural mother, who worked as a housekeeper and nanny for the British woman, initially agreed to the adoption but later changed her mind.