South Africans reward random act of kindness

When Monet van Deventer discovered she had forgotten her bank card at home and couldn’t buy any petrol, Nkosikho Mbele forked out R100 of his own to buy her fuel so that she wouldn’t run out on the notoriously dangerous N2 between Strand and Cape Town.

The petrol attendant, based at a station at Makhaza, near Khayelitsha, said Van Deventer could pay him back when next she was in the vicinity, without so much as taking down her details.

Van Deventer returned the same day – last Thursday – to pay him back and find out a bit more about him.

She was so taken by his generosity that she later went on to the ‘BackaBuddy’ crowdfunding platform, where she described what had happened and how she hoped to be able to do something for him as he had ’saved [her] life’.

She appealed to people to donate to help Mbele to support his two children, mother and brother who lived with him in Khayelitsha. Mbele had also indicated that he was keen to get involved in helping others in his community.

By midday on Saturday, pledges amounted to R45 000. Twenty-four hours later, the sum had climbed to R294 000.

A modest Mbele said: ‘I was just doing what everyone else would have done, from the heart and God’s will. I believe there is no black and white, I wish to bring peace and to bring people together.’

Van Deventer said her experience was an indication of the many ‘positives’ in South Africa.

First published on Daily Friend