ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1996, the story of one small boy dominated British newspaper headlines. Sifisio Mahlangu’s tale was called a ‘tug-of-love’ case, but it was one with an unusual twist. This was not a custody battle between two estranged parents. Instead, it was a fight between two women, both calling themselves the boy’s mother. The first was his natural mother, a Black South African house worker. The other was a white woman called Salome Stopford, who was once his mother’s employer and who had brought Sifisio to England and now wanted to adopt him formally.
