MBOMBELA – Mr Andrew Stewart (23), who had been missing, was found in Swellendam yesterday.
His family opened a missing persons case after they had no contact with him for a month. He had seemingly disappeared in the Mbombela or Hoedspruit areas.
Yesterday afternoon, they discovered he was unharmed and unperturbed by the worry he had caused.
“We went through hell for 34 days not knowing where he was and he just couldn’t be bothered,” said an upset Ms Josi Hauptfleish.
Hauptfleish is Andrew’s sister. She and her father, Mr Lance Stewart, had been trying to find Andrew.
Lance was frantic when he visited Lowvelder Monday morning. “My son would never deliberately drop from the face of the earth like this. Something must be wrong,” he said.
He proceeded to look for his son at the only places he he had not yet faced – the public hospitals.
Lance said that the family hadn’t seen or heard from Andrew since November 10.
According to Lance, Andrew travelled to the Lowveld for a job interview at Londolozi Game Reserve. “After the interview, Londolozi actually called his mother in an attempt to get hold of him, as they couldn’t reach him on his number,” Lance said. This caused the family to worry.
Josi, who lives in Cape Town, opened a missing person’s case with the police. Andrew’s mother, Ms Rose Shuttleworth, took to Facebook in an attempt to locate her son.
“He was last seen in the Nelspruit and Hoedspruit area,” she posted on the Nelspruiters group.
Lance travelled to Hoedspruit and Nelspruit and searched for his son, but to no avail. According to Josi, he made telephone contact from Swellendam yesterday afternoon.
“He said that his phone had been stolen days ago. He never reported the theft and didn’t see the need to reply to our worried Facebook messages and emails. We are very upset,” she said.
