Zephany Nurse reveals her real identity - meet Miché Solomon
The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria yesterday lifted
the ban on revealing her name, as the now 22-year-old Miché Solomon prepares to
publish a tell-all book.
It was a court order that Nurse herself, together with the Centre for Child Law, had initially applied for when news of her kidnapping first broke in 2015.
She was re-united with her biological parents when she was 17 and learnt that she had been kidnapped from the Groote Schuur Hospital as a newborn baby.
The Centre for Child Law says recent developments in the Zephany Nurse story, highlight the need to protect child crime victims better.
Centre project Coordinator, Zita Hansungule says they had to apply to keep her identity hidden at the time, because her identity was not automatically protected.
"The Criminal Procedure Act, says that the identity of the child offenders and witnesses, involved in criminal proceedings are protected. It doesn't say anything about child victims, so a child victim, in essence, is only protected if they are a witness in a criminal matter," says Hansungule.
However, during the court battle against the woman who kidnapped her at birth, Nurse was not a witness and therefore did not have identity protection.
Hansungule says this is a flaw in the criminal justice system that must urgently be ratified.
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