South African herd boy 'not white'

DNA tests will now be used to prove his parentage

A South African judge has raised doubts over the credibility of a teenager who says he spent six years as the captive of a black family.

The boy, known as Happy Sindane, says he grew up with a white family and was kidnapped by their domestic servant.

He speaks only the Ndebele language but says he remembers his parents speaking Afrikaans.

But magistrate Martinus Kruger said this story was probably not true.

"The court finds on the balance of probability that it is unlikely that Happy Sindane came from a white family," he said after Sindane made a brief court appearance in Bronkhorstspruit, east of Pretoria.

"It looks like he was never with a white family, even from birth, although Happy alleges this," he said.

Hoaxes

The court also ruled that Sindane was 16 and not 18 as he had claimed.

This makes him a legal minor and Mr Kruger ruled that he will stay in a place of safety while the case was investigated.

"He likely has a white or coloured father and a black mother. DNA tests will determine what the real position is," said Heinrich Augustyn of the justice department.

The well publicised case has led to a flood of claims by people who say they are his parents, however police believe that many of them are hoaxes.

Police have taken blood tests from a white couple, Jan-Hendrik and Sarie Botha, who claim that Sindane may be their son, Jannie, who has been missing since 1992.

Meanwhile, The Sowetan newspaper reports that a black woman, Tozi Ben, says Sindane may be the child of her cousin who had an affair with a white farmer.