While attending the Mpumalanga Air Show on May 2, Musa Mthombeni’s vehicle was broken into and his laptop, other electronics and passport, along with other valuable documents were stolen. The following day, Lowveld local Leon Marais was on a morning walk when he noticed a pile of papers and cards under some rubbish next to the road in Van Rooyen Street. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the pile contained a passport, bank cards and rewards cards.

“I picked up the most valuable items and took it home with me and decided to make a post on a local Facebook group to try and locate this person to ensure that his documents were entrusted in his care again.”

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After seeing the post, another Good Samaritan, Francois Rossouw, a retired police officer in Mbombela, took the time to find Mthombeni on Facebook. He went through a tedious process of matching numerous profiles to Mthombeni’s passport picture. Finally, Rossouw was able to get in contact with Mthombeni and notified him about the Facebook post, through which he was able to contact Marais.

“Marais showed empathy to my situation. He assured me that my documents were safe with him and he would ship them to me. He sacrificed his time and his petrol just to assist a person he will probably never meet,” Mthombeni said.

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Mthombeni, who is from Secunda, said the incident made him not want to visit Mbombela again, but Marais and Rossouw’s actions showed him what the Mbombela community stands for, and that despite adversity, there is always humanity.

“The Lowveld is blessed to have people of this calibre,” Mthombeni said.