Pregnant teen and parents that fled with baby found

WATERVAL BOVEN – A teenage girl, Sannie*, and her parents, Daan* and Petro*, have gone on the run after the court granted custody of the girl’s 14-month-old baby to her paternal grandmother. The family had been found, and the baby had been returned to her rightful guardian.

Lea*, the paternal grandmother, applied for custody after Sannie and her family refused to let Pieter* (27), the father of the baby, see his daughter.The court granted Lea full custody with immediate effect on November 16.

Attorney, Mr Markus Saayman, represented Pieter and Lea in the case, and spoke to Lowvelder on their behalf.

The doctor who established that Sannie was pregnant in February 2015, was obligated to report the pregnancy as she was under the age of 16. A statutory-rape case was opened against Pieter.

“Sannie’s parents later requested that the case be withdrawn, and confirmed that Pieter and Sannie had been in a relationship. Sannie’s older sister also had a relationship with an older man and fell pregnant some time before Sannie. The parents withdrew that case too. They only tried reopening the cases of statutory rape when they did not want the fathers of the babies around. The court believed Sannie and her parents are not credible.”

“To determine child support took only a few minutes in court. My client said he would pay whatever Sannie asked for. He wanted to take care of his child. He established his rights while she was still pregnant by paying for everything.”

After many attempts to fulfil his role as a father, Sannie kept on making excuses every time Pieter requested to see his baby. She tried to get a restraining order against him, claiming she was afraid of him.

The court denied the order after witnesses testified that they saw Sannie and her family hugging and kissing Pieter, and heard Daan, refer to Pieter as his son.

Saayman was notified that Daan and Petro tried to adopt the baby without Pieter being informed, so that they could legally keep him away.

In the custody case, Saayman requested that a thorough assessment be performed on Pieter by a psychologist. An accident in which he sustained head injuries a few years prior to his relationship with Sannie, may have affected his ability to take care of a child. Dr Jacob van Zyl deemed Pieter to be mentally fit to take care of his baby.

The court determined that Lea would get full custody. Both Pieter and Sannie would have supervised visitation rights. According to Saayman, Daan accused the courts of turning him into a criminal and threatened to take the baby away.

“You will never find the child,” he reportedly said in front of Saayman and the High Court judge. The former tried to speak to Daan afterwards, but the latter made more threats.

The same day Saayman, Lea and Pieter went to fetch the child. “We knew what type of people we were dealing with and took two constables with us to their home in Waterval Boven, to collect the baby. There were quite a number of dogs on their property, so the police did not want to enter. The house was completely locked, and the neighbours confirmed that the family had sped off, some time before we got there,” said Saayman.

Sannie’s fiancé, Paul*, with whom she is expecting another child, later contacted Pieter. He told him that Sannie had left without him, but that he planned to drive to Witbank to see if they were there. He requested that Pieter pay money into his account so that he could buy fuel. Pieter found this odd and discovered that the account belonged to Petro.

“We figured out that they were on the run. We gave them 48 hours and the benefit of the doubt to come to their senses. Now they are stuck, can’t go any further, and are trying to extort money from Pieter through Paul,” said Saayman. A case of kidnapping and evading a court order has been opened against Sannie, Petro and Daan.

During the custody battle between Lea and Sannie’s parents, family advocate, Mr Francois Rawlinson, recommended that all the minors, two girls and a boy, under Daan and Petro’s supervision be removed, as both the girls (aged 11 and 14) appeared to be sexually active, yet no medical reports were provided to Lowvelder in corrobaration of the allegation pertaining to the 11-year old daughter. It was not determined how Daan and Petro’s parenting affected their 11-year-old son.

The eldest sister, who is no longer a minor, had married her baby’s father, and already moved out. She had her first child with him around age 15.

In this case, Pieter and Lea were fighting for custody of the baby, and anything regarding the rest of the family would remain a different case altogether.

Sannie and her family, including the other children and the baby, were found in Krugersdorp in Johannesburg on November 28. Sannie and her parents handed themselves over to the police. The entire family was transported back to Waterval Boven via the SAPS in the back of a police van. The baby was handed over to Lea and Pieter later that same evening.

Lowvelder did not get any official comment from Pieter or his family since the baby had been found.

*Aliases are used to protect the minors involved in this case.

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