Mom of missing SA teacher hands out posters at police stations in Vietnam

Coleen Bothma traipsed from one police station to another in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) this week to let them know about her missing son.

She has been in Vietnam for a week to trace the footsteps of her 23-year-old son John Bothma, who went missing on May 18.

John and another South African teacher, Mushfiq Daniels, were both reported missing in Vietnam this year in separate cases.

The Kempton Park resident recently secured a flight to the country and obtained her first passport, four months after his disappearance. Bothma has braved the unending humidity, an overwhelm of foreign sights and sounds, and even her first motorbike ride to find answers and visit the places he had been.

“I must have been at around 10 police stations to hand his missing poster in,” she said.

This was after seeing numerous missing posters for Daniels around town.

“Time is running out and I so want to bring John home.”

News24 previously reported he had been visiting a friend in Ho Chi Minh City. His phone has been off since then.

John had been teaching part-time since landing in the south-east Asian country in November 2018, but he was hoping to secure a longer contract.

Escorted by John’s teacher friend Nguyen Thi Thu Thanh, Bothma visited the school where he taught and met some of the children who had been in his class.

“The most wonderful experience was to stand at the school and I knew, John was here.”

It was also a whirlwind of emotions when she was shown the backpackers room where he slept before his disappearance.

She has since picked up his passport from the South African embassy.

Bothma is expected to meet with Daniels’ mother Faheema while abroad.

Daniels, who lived in the same city in Vietnam and had been teaching English since last year, was last seen on July 5.

Faheema previously took to Facebook to say she would not give up the search for her son.

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