Johannesburg – Former Orlando Pirates captain and businessman Lucky Lekgwathi thought his retirement dream crumbled after his restaurant was looted on Monday.
But on Thursday, Lekgwathi’s fans joined forces when they made donations to the former Bucs star to help him reopen his restaurant in Kliptown, Soweto.
Captain My Captain, as he was known to many, told Sunday World that his newly founded Grootman Lifestyle restaurant was his hope for a better retirement life, but seeing the restaurant empty after looters left only litter and broken glass left him feeling like his dreams were fading.
But his hope was restored when he received several calls from fans who offered donations to help him rebuild the eatery.
“Seeing my restaurant destroyed like that really made me feel like the community hates me, but having community members donating for the restoration made me realise that it was looted by jealous people,” said Lekgwathi.
https://twitter.com/Mbango_Ndwandwe/status/1414631903806861313?s=20
He said he was informed of the looting at around 10am on Monday, and he was broken by the thought of another black person vandalising a black business that brings them jobs. He wandered around in fear of being attacked and only made it to the empty eatery with broken glasses at 2pm.
“It took me R400 000 to build and you can imagine just how much I’ll have to spend to have it up and running again.
“I mean there might be a price hike after all this because businesses need to restore what they lost.
“Not only did I want to be in business, I really wanted this to serve as my retirement dream so I invested a lot of money in it.
“Next thing, they will be saying that football stars die paupers because they spend all their salary on cars, partying and girls.
“And people like me with small businesses are suffering the most because we don’t have business insurances because we are still trying to build ourselves, make some profit and only then can we afford insurance.
“Trust me when I say it doesn’t come cheap,” he said.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
Sunday World
