Delivering and collecting packages all day may be an exhausting job, but Mfundo Vilakazi always gets a lift when he calls on a certain Durban home, where he’s welcomed with open arms.
In a video that’s gone viral, Mfundo is seen on the receiving end of a huge hug from a client’s toddler daughter who adores him.
In the Instagram video, Peyton (3) is seen running into 30-year-old Mfundo’s arms for a hug as he delivers balloons and a gift for her at her Durban home.
He’s formed a sweet bond with little Pey, as her mom, Jane Kilian, calls her.
In the video, Mfundo picks her up before she opens the box of goodies.
The gift – a mini delivery uniform set – was a surprise from Mfundo’s employer, after seeing a photo Jane posted of the besties together which she captured when Mfundo had come to collect parcels from her.
From the day Peyton first saw him, she took an instant liking to him.
“Since she turned two, she kept seeing Mfundo and he’s definitely her favourite person,” Jane tells us.
Pey was a few months old when the country first went into lockdown. The only people she saw were her mom, her dad, Nick, and delivery guys.
But something just came over her when she met The Courier Guy employee Mfundo, who frequents their home to deliver or collect parcels for Jane and Nick’s online businesses.
“Every few days, she’d see him and say hello over the wall, and then she started saying his name. For the past two months she’d cry if I didn’t take her with me to the wall to collect or hand over a parcel,” Jane says.
“She’d always say ‘hi Mfundo’ and they’d talk, and when she says goodbye, she blows him kisses and says ‘love you’,” she adds.
Jane says Mfundo’s kind and gentle demeanour is probably what made Pey gravitate towards him. He always makes an effort to say hello to her and he’s really genuine too.
“A lot of people, especially delivery guys, are rushing around all day and you don’t always get the happiest one delivering to you because they aren’t exactly having a chilled day. But he’s always just the same – kind, courteous. He just has such a nice energy.”
The fitness and wellness entrepreneur says her daughter’s eyes widen, her smile broadens and her excitement peaks when she sees Mfundo.
And when she hears a hooter, she’ll say Mfundo’s name even if it’s not him.
When the video was shot, it was only the second time Pey and Mfundo had met without the boundary wall between them.
“We normally don’t open the gate because we have dogs,” Jane explains.
“But a few days before I took the video, I had a lot of orders going out, so I needed him to drive in. That was the first time that they actually saw each other without a wall between them, and she ran and jumped into his arms and gave him a hug.
“I took that photo and posted it on my Instagram stories and tagged The Courier Guy. They saw it and emailed me saying they love the picture and wanted to send her a gift.”
Mfundo is touched by the bond he shares with Pey.
“I even ask myself what’s happening, because we have a special bond. She loves me, she doesn’t take me as a courier guy,” he tells us.
“I regard Pey as my baby sister.”
He says Pey gave him a picture she made at school, which he displays in his room.
“She gave it to me from her heart and it means a lot to me that even when she’s at school, she thinks about me. That’s why I give her the love she gives to me. I love that girl.”
Mfundo doesn’t have a daughter of his own, but he has two sons, Ingiphile (12) and Mfundo Jr (6), who live with their grandmothers.
He thinks his relationship with Pey is a sign that he might have a daughter one day.
Pey, he says, has a very special place in his heart.