It remains a mystery how a school principal who went missing on July 4 in Brakpan ended up in a hospital about 30km away in Johannesburg.

Sandringham High School principal Phillip du Plessis is still in ICU after the was hit by a car in front of Carnival City. His family found him on Friday in the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.

Du Plessis’s sister Angela Cornelius last week called it a miracle.

“The whole time you cannot eat. You cannot sleep‚ so tonight we are going to sleep and we are going to eat a lekker plate of food now‚” Cornelius said on Friday.

“This morning when we prayed‚ we told the Lord: ‘Help us please so that we find our brother today.’ The Lord was just awesome.”

Cornelius said they had no idea why Du Plessis‚ a bachelor‚ went to the casino in the school’s bakkie‚ which was found on the premises.

“My brother is a diabetic and we suspect his blood sugar was too low and he became confused.”

Cornelius said on Monday that Du Plessis was subsequently transferred to a private hospital‚ but remained in ICU and was still unable to speak.

On Friday‚ Cornelius and family members revisited hospitals with missing person flyers in the area and around Carnival City.

They showed their flyers to paramedics when they arrived at a hospital‚ with another patient who told them about reports of a man matching the description being taken to the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital.

Family members rushed to the hospital where they found him in the ICU unable to speak‚ suffering from head injuries and a broken right leg.

“He opened his right eye and we told him if he recognises us‚ then he should blink his eye once and he did.

“Because he cannot speak to us‚ the circumstances remain murky‚” said Cornelius.

She praised the public hospital for treating her brother despite not knowing his identity.

“They treated him for two weeks and they had no idea who he is. You can really see they gave him the best that they could‚” Cornelius said.

“We cannot thank the Lord enough and want to thank everyone that prayed with us… It just shows you that no matter what happens in the country‚ South Africans stood together and helped us to track down our brother.”