A small private jet carrying the one-year-old Malawian boy Madonna hopes to adopt took off from the southern African country on Monday, a Reuters witness said. In this file photo, Madonna performs during her concert of "Confessions Tour" in Tokyo September 20, 2006.. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Toru Hanai

By Gershwin Wanneburg

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The one-year-old Malawian boy Madonna hopes to adopt was seen in South Africa, boarding a flight to London on Monday, a newspaper photographer said.

Neo Ntsoma, a photographer at Johannesburg's Star newspaper, told Reuters she recognised the boy, David Banda, from pictures in the media but bodyguards blocked her taking images of him.

"I saw white people with a black baby. I thought these people might be the ones we were waiting for ... When they reacted I was convinced," Ntsoma said Reuters.

"They went through the boarding gate ... The flight was going to London," she said, adding this happened around 1715 GMT in Johannesburg.

Madonna's publicist said on Monday the pop star had been granted temporary custody of the child.

Earlier, a small private jet whisked the boy from Lilongwe in Malawi. An airport official in Malawi said the plane was registered in South Africa and probably headed back to that country.

Banda left Malawi with one of Madonna's bodyguards and her personal assistant, igniting charges she had used her celebrity status to bypass normal adoption rules.

"Madonna and her husband filmmaker Guy Ritchie have been granted an interim adoption of baby David by the courts in Malawi. He was issued a passport and a visa was granted earlier today which allows him to travel outside of Malawi," Madonna's New York publicist said in a statement.

"This interim adoption grants David's new parents temporary custody for 18 months, during which time they will be evaluated by the courts of Malawi per the tribal customs of the country. It is expected that the family will be reunited within the next few days."

Madonna lives with Ritchie in London.

Banda will swap his home in a dilapidated orphanage near the Zambian border for a life of luxury with one of the world's most famous couples and their two children. But the case has angered human rights groups who say the adoption is illegal.

(Additional reporting by Mike Collett-White in London)