This is going to be an interesting case. Comedian Chris Rock and his estranged wife are facing a full-scale criminal investigation over raising a South African girl as their own in America. It has been seven years since Ntombi-futhi Samantha left South Africa and travelled to the U.S on a tourism visa without being legally adopted by the couple.

This whole saga came to light since Chris and his wife, Malaak Compton-Rock, filed for divorce. One officer compared the incident to “child-trafficking”.

According to The Daily Mail, the seven-year-old girl is the biological daughter of Crispen Khanyile – who was working as a waiter at the luxury five-star Saxon Hotel in Sandhurst in Johannesburg in June 2008 – and Thusang Precious Ndebele. Khanyile had befriended Chris Rock while serving him at the hotel in 2008 and in November (5 months later), with the approval of both biological parents, the couple took the child back to the U.S. Her biological parents are both unemployed and have since separated.

Although Malaak claims that the child is living a full life now that she is in the U.S., South African adoption laws are a lot more complex and goes through a four-step process.

They must submit an application through an accredited adoption agency.

They are then screened in meetings with a social worker, have medical examinations, marriage and psychological assessments, home visits and police checks.

Adopters are then usually put onto a waiting list.

Finally their application goes through the children’s court, where the adoption will be agreed by a judge.

It is a bit privileged to assume one can just remove a child from their home country without going through the procedures that apply to everyone else, but let’s hope the little girl can stay within the family.

[source: dailymail]