Peter Kelly, from Whangarei, died in South Africa in 1974. The last person to see him alive has been searching for his family since - and found them this week. Photo / Supplied
Peter Kelly, from Whangarei, died in South Africa in 1974. The last person to see him alive has been searching for his family since - and found them this week. Photo / Supplied
A mystery New Zealand backpacker who died in South Africa 48 years ago has been identified.
A South African expatriate who witnessed his death at his Johannesburg home made a public appeal through the Herald this week to find the man, known only as "Red".
Family and friends have contacted the Herald to say the man was Peter Kelly, from Whangārei.
"It was quite emotional," said Kelly's sister Colleen Wech, of the moment she read the article in the Northern Advocate. Her voice quivering, she said she immediately recognised the man as her brother.
Kelly died after accidentally falling seven storeys from a balcony in Hillbrow, Johannesburg in 1974.
The last man to see him alive, Tony Brebner*, said he had been haunted by his death ever since and had unsuccessfully tried to track down his family for decades. He had only met him days earlier and did not know his full name or any other details.
Wech said the family never had closure after her brother's death. While New Zealand maintained diplomatic ties with South Africa during apartheid, communication was strained and it was difficult to get any information out of the country.
The family were already grieving the loss of Peter's older brother, Mike, a medical student who is believed to have drowned in the Whanganui Hospital swimming pool four years earlier, aged 21.
South African Police eventually contacted their New Zealand counterparts after Kelly's death, and Colleen recalls a late-night visit from police officers to their Whangārei home to break the news to the parents.
The police recommended that Kelly be buried in Johannesburg. His body would have to return as cargo and there were few flights between New Zealand and South Africa, meaning it could be two weeks before his body came back.
Kelly was buried in a Johannesburg cemetery, and Brebner said he was the only person at the graveside who was not an official. A service was also held in Whangārei, without a body and without much knowledge of how Kelly died.
"It was the most peculiar feeling," said Wech.
"It was an awful time. I remember a year passed and my dad saying 'I would just love to know what really happened'."
Their father died in 1975, and their mother died in 2004. A year later, Wech went to Johannesburg to trace her brothers' last moments and said Mass at his graveside.
A photo of Peter Kelly from a family scrapbook, which includes a newspaper article from the time of his death. Photo / Supplied
An article from the time of his death said Kelly was a keen sportsman, representing Auckland schoolboys in cricket and the Hikurangi rugby club.
Ray Tewake, from Whangarei, worked with him as linesman at the post office in Whangārei before Kelly went overseas.
"He was hard case, great sense of humour, great to have a beer with. And he was the only one I trusted to drive my car, a Zephyr I think it was."
In a letter sent home to family, Kelly spoke about the unfairness of apartheid South Africa, saying black South Africans were "despised" and treated "pretty poorly".
He wrote that he gave a black man a ride home to Soweto and that he was appalled by the poverty and cramped living. He finished the letter saying he was flying to England soon and would send his new address to the family. He never made it to England, dying a few days later.
Brebner, now living in Australia, planned to speak to Colleen Wech this week. He said it would bring him great peace after 45 years to tell Red's story.
"I can't believe how long I have held on to this."
The Johannesburg suburb of Hillbrow in 2014. Photo / 123rf
