Minister in baby war

A distraught mother says she has not seen her two-year-old daughter since she was taken away by Women, Children and People with Disabilities Minister Lulu Xingwana and her nephew on March 1.

"I have had no contact with my child. I have always been her primary caregiver. She has never been without me," the 27-year-old Mthatha mother said yesterday.

"I am very sad. I don't know what to do."

Xingwana's nephew, who says he took his daughter from his former girlfriend to give the toddler "a better life", has refused to return the child, despite three court orders to do so.

The little girl is currently at Xingwana's upmarket Pretoria home.

Lawyers for the mother have threatened to apply to the Pretoria and Mthatha high courts for the nephew to be declared in contempt of court .

Xingwana became entangled in the custody tug-of-war when she reportedly travelled with her nephew to the woman's house in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, to take custody of his daughter.

Yesterday, Xingwana's spokesman, Cornelius Monama, said the matter had nothing to do with her.

"The minister's position is that she is not involved in this case and does not understand why her name is dragged into it," he said.

The 33-year-old father of the child refused to comment.

The parents may not be named to protect the child's identity.

The couple are not married. The woman had previously lived in Xingwana's Cape Town and Pretoria homes.

She said she left her boyfriend when he became abusive.

Her custody nightmare began in July, when the child's father brought an urgent application in the Mthatha High Court for his daughter to be returned to him.

The application was upheld and, on February 1, an interim order was made for the return of the child to her father in Pretoria.

The child's mother was not in court to oppose the application and the interim order came as a shock to her.

She was ordered to show cause before March 1 why the order should not be made final.

On February 1, hours after the interim order was made, the minister and a team of bodyguards allegedly stormed into the mother's Mqandu home and forcibly removed the child.

The woman has been fighting back ever since.

Though the child's father claimed that his aunt would care for the child and "take her for ballet lessons", the mother said that though Xingwana was extremely generous, she had not bonded with the child because of her busy schedule.

In her court papers opposing the finalisation of the interim order, she said: "The high watermark of the argument was based on the issue that the minister's household is richer than mine.

"It was not considered what would happen if the minister was no longer in political favour and how she would then care for the minor," the mother said.

On March 1, the mother was granted some relief when the court ordered that the child be returned to her before March 7 pending the outcome of the litigation.

But her joy was short-lived.

She said yesterday that Xingwana and her nephew had gone to all lengths to make sure she was not reunited with her child.

On April 3, the order to return the child to her mother was confirmed in court.

But yesterday the mother's Legal Aid team said the child had not been returned as ordered by the court.

Lawyer Mawande Nokwali said he would apply to the high court to have the father held in contempt.

If found guilty, he faces a hefty fine or imprisonment.