Zelda Venter
PRETORIA: She never sold children to anyone. The family who claimed they paid for two orphans from her children’s home gave her a donation in appreciation of her good work.
This was the explanation of Raisibe Ramohlola, 60, also known as Mama Jackie, who told Judge Mohamed Ismail that her heart simply went out to the poor, parentless children.
She said social workers, the police and the councillors in her community were all happy about the work she did and they all brought homeless children to her Delfire Home and Care Centre in Diepsloot.
Mama Jackie took the stand for the second day in the high court in Pretoria to defend charges of child trafficking and running an illegal orphanage.
The state claims she sold a month-old baby girl and a six-year-old boy to a KwaMhlanga couple in 2012.
The couple said they paid Mama Jackie R15 000 for each child. They believed this was for the adoption of the children. The couple, however, discovered that it was not an adoption when they did not receive birth certificates or other documentation pertaining to the children.
Mama Jackie said after reading about her good work in a newspaper, the couple came to visit her and the children, then paid a “donation” into her bank account, for which she was very happy.
The couple again arrived at her home a few days after they gave her the “donation” and said they wanted a “thank you letter” to show they had made the “donation”. Mama Jackie, who claims she cannot read or write, said they went to an internet café to write the letter. She was about to ask someone there to assist her, but the woman who later claimed she had adopted the children, insisted on writing the letter herself.
“She wrote something and then asked me to just sign the thank you letter.”
Mama Jackie said the woman then said she wanted to adopt some of her children, but she told the woman she could not facilitate an adoption.
“She then told me she wanted to take some of the children on holiday. I told her before I could do that I had to have her and her husband’s IDs in case something went wrong.”
Mama Jackie said the woman chose two children she saw at the children’s home and the couple took them with them. One was a baby who was brought to her establishment by the child’s father and the police. They could not locate the mother.
The other was a boy who was left outside the gates of the orphanage six years before, when he was still a baby.
She said after the couple did not bring the children back after a few days, she became worried and phoned them. The woman said the children were not well and she was going to take them to a doctor.
When she did not hear from the couple again, she went to the police to open a case.
Mama Jackie was shown documents which purported to be “adoption papers” signed by her. Although this was signed by Mama Jackie, she was adamant she thought it was a “thank you letter”.
Asked why she still had children at her establishment after a court ordered her to close, she said she was simply looking after the children of her family members.
The case continues.