Desperate businessman takes action in the dark of night
After the sun went down on September 9, Jaco Dercksen brought in a backactor and tore down the hawkers’ shelter that had befouled Filipes Shisanyama for more than two years.
Estella Naicker
FRUSTRATION at losing roughly R100 000 in annual turnover, and the desperation to hold on to his remaining customers compelled one Mason Street businessman to take action in the dark of night.
After the sun went down on September 9, Jaco Dercksen brought in a backactor and tore down the hawkers’ shelter that had befouled Filipes Shisanyama for more than two years.
The next morning, he sent a Whatsapp message to the property agent, joking, “I am sorry to tell you this, but Jesus came in the middle of the night and took the hawkers shelter in front of my shop to a better place.”
The response he got read, “It looks 10 times better.”
The customers of Filipes Shisanyama will no longer be driven away by the putrid stench of human waste wafting from the derelict hawkers’ shelters, which vagrants, criminals and prostitutes have invaded to conduct their nefarious business.
Instead, customers will be able to relax and enjoy their meal in the shade and comfort of a neat veranda that was erected two weeks later, where the hawkers’ shelter used to be.
As a consequence of his actions, Mr Dercksen now faces legal action and, possibly, criminal charges.
Read full story in today’s edition of the Vryheid Herald newspaper.
