Pretoria - Mama Jackie, also dubbed the “Mother Teresa of Diepsloot”, will know her fate on May 6 when she will be sentenced in the high court in Pretoria for selling two orphans to a childless couple, as well as illegally running an orphanage.
Judge Mahomed Ismail said he will need time to “ponder” on the sentence, as the defence at first asked for a suspended sentence, while the prosecution on the other hand asked that the 62-year-old Raisibe Ramohlola be placed behind bars for 17 years.
In terms of the act pertaining to child trafficking, Mama Jackie could receive a maximum of 20 years imprisonment on each of the two charges of child trafficking on which she was convicted, as well as a further 10 years for illegally running an orphanage.
Ismail said there was a vast difference between what the State asked and what the defence wanted. While asking the court for mercy, the defence then changed its tune and called for an effective 2-year jail sentence.
Following Mama Jackie’s conviction earlier after she sold a month-old baby girl and a 6-year-old boy to a childless couple (who may not be identified) she took the stand to testify in mitigation of sentence. She had a breakdown in the witness box at the time, but on Tuesday calmly resumed her evidence.
She spoke of her love for children and especially her empathy with orphans, as she was an orphan herself who grew up in the streets.
Mama Jackie said she started her orphanage in 1996 when she noticed many children in the streets of Diepsloot who did not go to school. Most did not have parents and she started taking them in.
She said she received various donations, including from Rhema Church, which she used to clothe, school and feed the children.
She persisted that she never sold the children for which she was convicted, but insisted that the couple gave her a R30 000 donation for her orphanage. Asked what she did with the money, she said she used it to buy food and on transport for the children to travel to school and to pay when they had to go to the clinic.
Asked what punishment she should receive, Mama Jackie asked for a suspended sentence. “I don’t want to go to jail. My soul is down and hurting,” she told the judge.
The defence called a string of character witnesses and was set on calling even more if the judge did not say he took the point that Mama Jackie was a person who did a lot of good in the community.
All of the witnesses testified about how she saved them from the streets and how she would never allow anyone to go to bed on an empty stomach. They described her as a saint who “taught them how to respect people and how to love”.
Judge Ismail said it was not disputed that she did a lot of good and that people viewed her as the Mother Theresa of Diepsloot. The judge said she was not being punished for her good naturalness, but because of her wrongdoing. He said she took advantage of the childless couple, who were desperate to have children and who believed that they paid the R30 000 towards legally adopting the children.
Mama Jackie nearly got away with it, the prosecution said, and she was only caught out when the couple tried to register the children on their medical aid. It was then established that the documents she had handed to them, “signed by a social worker”, were forged.
The prosecution questioned why she refused to register her establishment, despite a court order directing her to do this. She was told she may not have any children at her orphanage, but when she was arrested, more children were found there. The court was told that if it was registered, she could obtain State grants, but she refused. The prosecution questioned “how many children might have been sold”.
Pretoria News