SA police close 'herd boy' case

By Alastair Leithead
BBC, Pretoria

The case of the South African boy who appeared at a police station earlier this year claiming he was abducted from his white parents and brought up in a black family appears to have been settled, for now at least.

Happy Sindane highlighted the importance of race in South Africa

It seems Happy Sindane, who is thought to be 16, was born to a black mother and a white father and was one of thousands of children abandoned every year in South Africa.

The story of Happy Sindane's life is still far from clear, but it seems the boy, who speaks the Ndebele language he was brought up with, was born of mixed race parents who abandoned him with another family.

Police have dropped their investigation into his abduction and say they are pretty certain who his mother was, even if they have not been able to find her, or find any positive DNA evidence.

Education fund

The case does however draw attention to just how much race is still such a huge issue in South Africa 10 years after the end of apartheid - that the story of a white boy being brought up by a black family raised such international attention.

But while he is just a boy who does not know his parents like many thousands of others in South Africa, his fame has at least secured his future.

The paint company Dulux ran an advert featuring Happy referring to the confusion over his colour.

There were complaints, an apology and the out of court settlement is being put into a trust fund to provide Happy with an education.