Johannesburg - They looked like ordinary children as they stepped into the arrivals hall at OR Tambo International Airport on Thursday morning.
Yet these two KwaZulu-Natal children, aged 13 and 7, spent five months on the streets of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
Their mother, a drug trafficker, was arrested in Portugal in December last year and is still in that country awaiting trial.
The children had to fend for themselves until a local resident alerted the South African embassy in May.
Then the SA Department of Social Development began the process of bringing them home.
They were placed in a safe home in Sao Paulo while the legalities were finalised.
The mother took the children to Brazil six years ago for “a holiday”.
It is believed she was a regular trafficker of drugs between Brazil and Portugal.
The younger child only speaks Portuguese. The older one speaks English and Portuguese.
Neither speaks Zulu – their home language.
After their arrival, the children were taken to meet Social Development Minster Bathabile Dlamini before being flown to Durban to be placed in foster care with an approved family.
Social Development spokeswoman Lumka Oliphant, a social worker, and the appointed foster family were at the airport to meet them.
Oliphant said their return had taken five months because a complicated process had to be followed.
Various departments were involved including International Relations and Co-operation, Home Affairs and Social Development, as well as SAA, which flew the children home.
“It was a long process as we had to fly to Portugal to interview the mother who nominated a foster care family. We also had to go through the courts in Brazil to release the children, as well as sort out all the paperwork and documents for the boys, but they were safe and well cared for during this time,” she said.
The department is also speaking to the fathers of the boys.
Oliphant said the children appeared to be fine. They told her they loved music and had brought their instruments with them.
“Given the circumstances, they were calm and did not appear to be traumatised,” she said.
Oliphant said this should serve as a warning to South Africans who committed crimes while living abroad: “Once they are in a foreign country and they act illegally, the laws of that country apply and there is nothing we can do for them.“
The Star