Johannesburg - A homeless Cape Town man who was also a survivor of the apartheid death penalty was reunited with his mother this weekend, after more than 40 years.
Neville Jackson’s reunion with his mother, Madina Naniwe Hartlief in Joburg was tearful and joyous.
Abedah Lawson, of the NGO Ubuntu Circle of Courage which reintegrates homeless people with their families, and community worker Venetia Orgill, who helped track down Jackson’s family bought him a bus ticket to Joburg.
Jackson has had a difficult life on the streets, fighting a drug addiction and had been in and out of prison until one day his fate changed.
Orgill, who finds shelter for people living on the streets during winter, helped Jackson find his family. She tracked down Jackson’s brother, David on Facebook and discovered that his mother was still alive and living in Joburg.
Jackson moved to Cape Town when he was 16 when he was placed at the Ottery Youth Care Centre.
At the time, he believed his grandparents, Fred McDonald and Lillian McDonald were his parents.
He lost ties with his family after the McDonalds were killed in a car crash while on their way to visit him at the reformatory. In June, Orgill placed him at the Cape Corps, a shelter in Athlone.
“Because he lost his grandparents at an early age, he lost hope. He went to prison at 18 years old,” said Orgill.
Jackson has been in and out of prison since then.
He was even on death row before the Constitutional Court abolished the death penalty in 1995. This earned him the nickname “Hangpaal”, which in Afrikaans roughly translates to being hung.
He said the last time he was in prison was in 2017.
“I used to live on the streets, break into houses, steal and then end up in jail. I would come out of jail and then would break into places again to survive on the streets,” said Jackson.
He met Orgill in 2011 in the Company’s Garden in Cape Town where she feeds the homeless every Thursday.
But finally, this year Jackson decided he had enough of the streets and asked Orgill for help.
After living at the hall in Athlone for a few months, he told Orgill he would like to find his family, and that was when his life took a heartwarming turn.
Orgill scrolled through Facebook and reached out to a David Jackson who she hoped was his brother. She messaged him and got lucky: He knew Neville Jackson.
“We contacted my brother on Facebook and he told me that my mother is still alive. I thought that she was dead,” he said.
For years he thought that his grandparents were his parents and his biological mother was his aunt, he added.
“I was shocked when I found out the truth. My father passed away four years ago, according to my biological mother,” he said.
His mother Medina said she couldn’t explain the feeling of having her son home after decades of not knowing where he was and if he was safe.
She couldn’t wait to see him when he arrived at her home in Joburg, and thought to herself: “Is that really my child?”
“It feels like a weight off my shoulders, I asked God for this. I hope more parents out there can also find their children. You don’t know where your child is, you don’t know anything,” stressed Medina.
She said she prayed every night to see her son again.
“I don’t know how to thank everyone. I am so thankful. I don’t know how to explain this to you.”
Medina added that she thought Neville had died because they had not been in touch for decades.
David said: “It was such a great relief to know my eldest brother is still alive and that we are going to see each other again.”
He said they first made contact after decades on September 8. “I was crying tears of joy to hear his voice again.”
Weekend Argus