Mama Jackie curtsies as judge convicts her
Mama Jackie gracefully accepted her fate when she was convicted on two charges of child trafficking.
|||Pretoria - Dressed smartly, the woman known as Mama Jackie gracefully accepted her fate on Tuesday when the high court in Pretoria convicted her on two charges of child trafficking and running an illegal child care centre.
Raisibe Ramohlola, 60, aka Mama Jackie, curtsied Judge Mohamed Ismail, shortly after her conviction, when he extended her bail for sentencing on January 29.
She faces up to 20 years in jail for child trafficking.
The judge rejected her version that she received R30 000 from a childless couple as a donation to her Delfire Child Care centre in Diepsloot.
Judge Ismail found she engaged in the sale of two children - a month-old baby girl and a 6-year-old boy. She asked the couple to pay R15 000 per child into her bank account, pretending that was to prepare the paperwork and to “facilitate the adoption”.
Throughout her trial Mama Jackie maintained that the money paid into the Delfire centre's account, was a donation. She said the couple “borrowed” the children to take them on holiday.
She said she phoned them when they did not bring the children back after a few days but the couple claimed the children were sick and they could not bring them back at that stage.
Mama Jackie said she eventually reported the couple to the police, but no evidence was submitted to this effect.
The couple testified that they saw an article in a newspaper about Mama Jackie and a picture of her holding an abandoned baby called Hope.
They contacted her as they believed she could assist them in adopting children. She refused that they adopt Baby Hope, but offered two other children.
The couple said they paid the money into her account for the paperwork but they received the children without any documentation, such as their birth certificates.
They realised something was wrong when they battled to register the paperless children and Social Services, in 2012, launched an investigation into the “adoption”.
A letter signed by Mama Jackie stating that the couple were adopting the children, was handed to court. But Mama Jackie said she merely signed the document, as she believed it to be a “thank you letter” for the donation.
Mama Jackie testified that she ran the centre with two other board members. They, however, testified that they knew nothing about the donation.
Judge Ismail said if it was a donation, one would expect her to divulge this to the other board members, as it would be in keeping with financial transparency.
The judge remarked that “one ponders in amazement why the generous donation” was not made to the board, but to Mama Jackie herself. The only physical evidence regarding the “donation”, he said, is the couple’s deposit slip.
Regarding the “thank you letter”, the judge said it is clear that it referred to an adoption.
He also said she clearly ran an illegal establishment, as the Johannesburg High Court ordered her to no longer accept children until her centre was registered.
Social workers explained to Mama Jackie how she had to go to register her centre, but she simply went ahead to run it illegally.
She earlier testified that she grew up as an orphan herself and she simply wanted to help homeless children.
The two children are still in the care of the couple, who are now legally fostering them.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
Pretoria News
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