Who is Petrus Zwane?
Petrus Zwane is a South African man who came into the limelight for being Sandra Laing’s ex-husband. Petrus Zwane eloped with Sandra Laing to Swaziland, and when they were crossing the border back to South Africa, they were jailed for illegal border crossing.
Petrus Zwane’s parents were called, but when Sandra’s parents heard about their daughter, they were angry with the act that they cut ties with her. Petrus Zwane’s parents took Sandra and their son out of jail, and they started life as husband and wife.
Petrus Zwane’s Children
Petrus Zwane and her wife Sandra Laing started family life after Sandra was disowned by her parents. Her father had promised to shoot her and shoot himself if he saw her step into his compound, and Sandra had to start a family of her own with someone who loved her the way she was.
Sandra and Petrus Zwane had three children. Sandra got her children during a tough economic period and was living in a tin-roofed shack house, in one of the black areas the white government had set aside for the blacks.
Life was unbearable for her and the children, and she broke from Petrus Zwane in search of a better life for her children. If she wanted to become white again, she would lose custody of her children because white parents were not allowed to raise black children. Thus, this fact limited Sandra from changing her race to white, although she could, for the sake of her children.
Petrus Zwane’s Ex-Wife
Sandra Laing is a south African woman whose life story has inspired many films regarding racial discrimination in South Africa. Petrus Zwane was married to Sandra Laing, and they had three children, after which they separated.
Sandra Laing was born on November 26, 1955, and during that time, racial discrimination was a big issue in South Africa. Sandra’s parents were white, including her grandparents and great-parents, but she was born with darker skin and curly hair.
Her complexation classified her as non-white, although both her parents were white. Sandra was born to White parents, and they raised her as one of them. When she was seven years, she was taken to an all-white boarding school, like her other siblings, Adriaan and Leon.
The school administration concluded that Sandra was colored and expelled from the school. The schoolmaster drove Sandra Laing home, and she asked the school head why she was being taken away from school. Even the school head was afraid of telling the ten-year-old girl that she would not attend school with her siblings because of her skin color.
Sandra was an innocent young girl, but the racial discrimination in South Africa was extreme and caused her a lot of suffering. Although her parents tried to prove she was white, they could not, forcing her to attend a black boarding school.
Although the law changed later, allowing white parents’ children to be classified as white, Sandra Laing’s case caused a fuss. The government passed the new law, but Sandra’s case was never revisited.
