Facebook search turns up another branch on German woman's SA family tree

The German woman who tracked down an uncle in SA has discovered her father had another brother who also went into exile and is still missing.

The newly-discovered uncle of a 20-year-old German woman who launched a search for her late exiled father’s family in South Africa says that one of the people in a group photograph posted by his niece‚ Melinda Breitkopf‚ is his other lost brother who also went into exile.

Banele Kubeka told TimesLIVE that two of his brothers‚ Alpheus Mpikeleli Kubeka and Mzwakhe Kubeka went into exile during the apartheid era and that their South African family had no knowledge of what had happened to them.

“As the last born son‚ I feel blessed and ecstatic to have been connected to my long lost nieces and nephews as their father left the country before I was born. What is more beautiful is that on the photograph that Breitkopf posted we identified another man that looks exactly like my other missing brother.

• Search by German woman for South African family of late father has happy ending 

“Though Mzwakhe is still missing with no trace‚ Mpikeleli’s children give us hope. I grew up knowing that they went into exile‚ as a family we were under the impression that we will never find any of them or their families‚” said Kubeka.

He said that though his parents died in the early 2000s‚ he was left with another brother and sister.  Kubeka said that he found out about the story on social media and started communicating with Breitkopf.

“I sent my details to her on the Facebook page she created for my brother‚ I then sent her a picture of the passport that Mpikeleli left at home when he fled the country. A day after‚ a woman who identified herself as Nonceba from Germany who was helping her find us called me and asked me questions to verify my claim.” he said.

With excitement‚ Kubeka told TimesLIVE that all of this led to the woman giving him her details and he then called his niece‚ with whom he remains in contact.

On Monday‚ she updated her supporters on the page and said that she can't express how happy and thankful she is to finally get to know her family.

"A few days ago I finally found my dad's brother‚ my Uncle Banele Kubeka.

"Words can't describe the feeling that I had when I got the first call from him." she wrote on the Facebook page.

The newly-found uncle showed her the passport that her father left in his South African home before going into exile. She also shared a picture of her uncle whom her supporters agreed looked like her father. Breitkopf thanked her supporters profusely for their help throughout her search.

"A big thanks to everyone who thought of me‚ who shared my post and who had hope together with me. Without you guys I wouldn't be at the point where I am right now." she wrote.

Breitkopft said her father left South Africa in 1977 and died 15 years ago when she was only five years old‚ leaving behind six children.

Some people suggested that they knew her father as a member of the Pan Africanist Congress. Others said he was a member of Umkhonto weSizwe (MK).

Kubeka has pleaded for donations for flight costs and other expenses in order for him to go travel to Germany to meet his nephews and nieces. He is also making arrangements with organisations that can possibly help him and his family to reunite with them.

TimesLIVE