Dan of Daveyton

We arrive in Daveyton to meet Dan - our soon-to-be landlord. He’s wearing long shorts or short longs, a baggy t-shirt and some beat-up sneakers. He runs a tavern and lets out the small shop space next door to a hair salon.

The Salon doesn’t know it yet, but this will be the site of our iKhokha Daveyton store. We sit on beer crates in the load-shedding darkness of his now-defunct Tavern and talk business.

Dan was a big player in the area about 4 years ago. He grew up in the house we now sit in. When his parents died, he converted it into a tavern and ran it successfully for several years.

One day he walked outside and was confronted by a gang of 7 gunmen holding AK47s.?

Taverns are known as high-cash businesses, often holding large sums on site. The gunmen took Dan to his safe, holding approximately R1.2 m and a gun.??

Dan swiftly opened the safe, grabbed the gun and shot the man behind him.?

A single gunman keeping watch at the door ran away down the narrow corridor.

Dan shot him and 3 more in their backsides whilst they fled. As he ran around the corner at the end of the corridor, one man was waiting for him and shot him in the head at close range with an AK47.

Somehow, it didn’t kill him.?

The gang stole all the cash, most of which was owed to British American Tobacco as consignment stock payments.?

After the incident, Dan was forced to shut the tavern, sell his house in the suburbs and give up his BMW. He moved back to his family home, back to the crime scene. Back to beaten.

Over the next few weeks, we pour concrete straight into the rubble to fix the broken sidewalk. We paint the outside walls bright yellow and transform the shabby salon into an iKhokha beacon deep within the Daveyton community.?

A few months later our Daveyton store launched with Marimba drums, a discussion panel and local eats. It is currently one of our top-performing stores,? largely due to our relationship with Dan and the connection we have created with the Daveyton community.?

In a quiet moment, Dan admits he can’t believe we returned after that first meeting in the dark.

He sighs wistfully, looking at the torrent of people bustling past the new store.?

“Eish” he says. “Sandton has come to Daveyton”.?