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By Paula-Ann Smit

Freelance journalist


Boksburg mother desperate to find her missing son

Alet Smit has looked everywhere for her son, who has been missing for two months.


“Bye, see you Monday.”

With these words, a security technician from Boksburg, Theunis de Bruin, 23, greeted his colleagues on June 2 at about 1pm. He has been missing ever since.

“I feel helpless,” his mother Alet Smit, 45, told Kempton Express on Friday, almost two months after his disappearance. “I can’t get answers anywhere.”

READ MORE: I just want my son’s body, father of missing boy pleads

According to Smit, De Bruin moved to a home in Boksburg North to be closer to his work. As he has no car, he would walk the short distance between the two.

“I was in his home and all his possessions are still there,” Smit said, fighting back tears. “I just want to know if he is alive.”

Initially, the worried mother thought her son might just be with friends. When she heard nothing from De Bruin after a day, she filed a missing person’s case with Boksburg North SAPS.

“Something has to be wrong, why would he let me worry like this?”

Smit said she has looked everywhere for him, except in the mortuary. “I just don’t have the strength,” she explained, the worry in her voice evident.

The young man’s employer, who wished to remain anonymous, told Kempton Express De Bruin had never stayed away from work without an excuse before.

“He has been working here for about a year, and this is a first.”

If Smit could give a message to her son, it would be for him to return home.

“Please, come back. We’re not angry. We miss you, and we just want to see you.”

At this stage, the heartbroken mother didn’t hide her tears.

In a heartfelt letter posted on Facebook over the weekend, Smit wrote: “I keep thinking about that smile you had when you visited me on Thursday. You were so happy. There was no sign that you would disappear or that our lives would change like this.”

This week, De Bruin will be missing for exactly two months.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged to contact Boksburg North SAPS on 011 898 3000/09/10.

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