MUM Zodwa Khoza wanted a better life for her little boy so she sent him to live with her sister and her husband.
But now Bigboy is 21 and behind bars, awaiting deportation to Mozambique.
Zodwa fears her daughter, who also went to live with her sister, will suffer the same fate. Zodwa (50) of Kromdraai, near Oshoek border post in Mpumalanga, watched cops bundle Bigboy into their van at Elukwatini Home Affairs last Thursday.
He was bust as an illegal immigrant.
“Officials didn’t believe he’s South African as he can’t speak Siswati well.
“He’s lived most of his life in Maputo.”
Zodwa said her son was born at Themba Hospital in 1994 and she took him to the local clinic till he was four.
She couldn’t raise him and his older sister so she asked her sister, Cecildah Banze and her husband, then living in Carletonville, to help.
The couple took the kids to Maputo, Mozambique in 1999 and that’s where they grew up. But Bigboy, renamed Carlos Banze, longed for his mum and came home five years ago – without an ID or Mzansi birth certificate.
“I took his clinic card to Home Affairs,” said Zodwa. “But officials said I was a liar and called cops. I followed them to the police station. I hope his father, Simon Mokoena, reads this.”
Constable Peace Mbokane said Bigboy Mokoena is waiting in Elukwatini’s cells.
) Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete said the complainant was detained because of an emergency travel certificate issued by the Mozambican government.
“Our preliminary investigation showed the document appeared not to have been tampered with. It clearly stated his place of birth as Maputo and his visitor’s visa as expired, thus rendering him illegal in the country.
“But we can’t discard the claim that he was born in South Africa and immigration officials are investigating to see if the birth information is correct.”
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