Happy reunion for long-lost cousins

Wilfred Nathras (left) and Clayton Dennis were separated by apartheid 40 years ago. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Two cousins who were separated by South Africa's racial laws 40 years ago have been reunited in Auckland.

As boys, Wilfred Nathras and Clayton Dennis played happily together on a farm in Zululand, South Africa.

"But as soon as we came to the town, it was forbidden in that apartheid era," Mr Nathras said yesterday, during an arranged meeting in their new city.

"It's sad we were drawn apart by a system that was wrong when we were blood cousins."

The men shared some grandparents who were German and others who were classed as Coloured or mixed race under the apartheid regime of 1948 to 1994.

"Intermarriage was not allowed and when my late mother, Olive, wanted to marry my dad, who was European, she applied to the Government to be reclassified as European.

"One of a number of official tests she had to go through at an interview was where they put a comb through your hair and if it did not get stuck you were not deemed as Coloured.

"My mother had prepared for it - using hair straightener. They reclassified her as white."

Olive's brother George, Mr Dennis' father, remained officially a Coloured person and so too did his children.

Yesterday, Mr Dennis said he was proud to call himself Coloured.

"My grandfather, he was a Coloured man, my grandmother was born to a German family. But I don't know what her family really were ... I think there was some black as well."

Five years ago, Mr Dennis moved to New Zealand from a city in Natal province and works as a plumber.

He and his cousin last saw each other in Durban in 1970 as their families scattered over the globe.

"I have lived in New Zealand for two years and did not know Clayton was here until an aunty in Australia told me," said Mr Nathras, 55, who works for a North Shore importing firm and was Auckland club cricket Umpire of the Year.

"I phoned and we were both overwhelmed. We had a hug and a few little tears."