An emotional reunion for Mariette and Sophie
Within three hours of the publication's distribution Snyman and Malatjie had already been reunited with the help of the readers.
Mariette Snyman and Sophie Malatji have been reunited.
In last week’s Mopani Herald , sister newspaper of Letaba Herald, an article was published in which Mariette Snyman requested assistance from the public to locate her former domestic worker, Sophie Malatji.
Within three hours of the publication’s distribution Snyman and Malatjie had already been reunited with the help of the readers.
Read: Hoedspruit woman to meet father after 35 years
Mariette and her sister Dannell told Herald that they were humbled by the readers’ kindness in trying to help the two families once again.
Read the original article below:
South African born and now Australian emigrate, Mariette Snyman pleads with the community of Tzaneen to assist her with locating her former domestic worker.
Snyman (42) is in dire need to be reunited with Sophie Malatji from Modjadji who she calls her ‘second mom’. Malatji started working for Snyman’s parents, Mercia Oosthuizen and Pieter Oosthuizen from 1987 in Modjadiskloof formely known as Duiwelskloof.
In 1993 the family relocated to Tzaneen at 5 Sirkelweg, opposite Unicorn Primary School. “In 1997 when my mother passed on my dad moved to Makhado, formely known as Louis Trichardt.
He took both Sophie and Manuel (Sophie’ son) with him. Manuel worked at my father’s abattoir which was one of the few ones in the Makhado area,” explained Snyman. Manuel however was sadly murdered between in 2006.
Pieter unfortunately passed in 2009 and Sophie continued working for Corrie van der Berg, Snyman’ stepmother, until 2012 when Corrie passed on as well. According to Snyman, Sophie was married to Wilson Malatji and she had two daughters, Maria (one year older than Snyman) and Oniccah (four to five years older than Snyman). Oniccah had a son called Daniel who was studying IT at one of the colleges in Phalaborwa, who she last spoke to between in 2014. Maria was selling fruits at some of the fruit markets in the Modjadjiskloof area just opposite KFC.
The last time Snyman saw Sophie and Maria was in October/November in 2015 at Modjadjiskloof KFC before she immigrated to Australia.
“I had their mobile numbers and thought we would stay in touch forever. But Since we moved here, I have been trying to get hold of the family. Unfortunately, one number doesn’t exist anymore and the other belongs to someone who couldn’t speak English and doesn’t know them at all,” she said.
Mariette’s sister, Danell Oosthuizen still stays in South Africa in Centurion and she has also tried her level best to find the Malatji family, but to no avail. Her worst nightmare is learning that Sophie and her family are no more. Even though the two families were reunited there was a sad news that Maria unfortunately passed two years back, but despite this they have another chance of rebuilding their relationships together going forward.
