My visit always begins with the voice of Kobus, the car guard from nearby.His greeting has become a part of my ritual visit to this leafy avenue in Stellenbosch.
A reformed gangster, Kobus has been living on the streets for
the last 13 years, since completing 10 years "inside" for being in with the wrong crowd and doing some bad things as he puts it. He would rather I didn't know what he did and when I look into his eyes I am sure I wouldn't.
Now he makes a living looking after peoples cars. His hand shake is crushing, his manners impeccable, a strong sense of right and wrong isdelicately balanced by anger over the hand life has dealt him and a resentment for never having fulfilled his potential.
Kobus has an experience of life I find enlightening, first hand knowledge of the darker side of our world that are ever present but little known. There is an air of uncertainty about him that I find engaging, a sense he has been places that the likes of you and I only see on crime DVD'sand read about in the newspaper, that no matter what he does he will always stay at the bottom of the bucket.
Every time I visit, we greet, occasionally we chat about the world, we compare our positions in life, then go our separate ways, he is always there, like a feature of the area.
Kobus is as much part of that leafy neighbourhood as the trees, birds and the side walks. Its as if this is his home, I suppose if you live on the streets it is, he makes constant conversation looking after stationary cars, buzzing around waving at people, calling out, wishing them a good day, checking how they are the only time he ever really stops is when the church bells chime!