Keith Blake, Ottery
On Saturday October 22, I was with my son Andre in Lymphleigh Road, Plumstead, and there, next to the pavement, I saw this bicycle with a motor with a unique little trailer.
On the side of the trailer was a notice board stating Dawood Gardening Services and listing 10 different services related to gardening with contact details. I then met the owner Dawood, a 62-year-old man who decided not to become a beggar but to execute his gardening skills into a business so as to put food on the table to make a decent living.
On his trailer were all the tools of his trade and he stated that he does work in the Wynberg, Diep River, Plumstead and Constantia area.
I told him that his story needs to be told as he can inspire others to become in a small and unique way, entrepreneurs.
In a gentle voice, he stated that God had sent me in his direction so people can know about him. A few hours later I stopped at a shop on the corner of De Wet and Ottery roads, Ottery, and there next to the doorway was a young man in his early 20s with a white, well looked after dog. He was half in a lying position and as shoppers came in or out of the shop he would beg for money, this young neatly dressed man.
As I watched him slouching and begging for money I just wished he could see and hear Dawood’s tale and then jump up and also become an entrepreneur and see you do not need a bakkie and a trailer as you can, like Dawood, do a business with a bicycle with a trailer.
