The sky’s the limit for an Imizamo Yethu man, who is back on the road doing deliveries, after his truck got stolen in front of his house in October last year.
Sheehama Onesmus, 42, started a transport company, Sky Transport, just over two years ago before he approached Pierre de Wet, 39, from Anything Goes Furniture company, about working together.
Mr De Wet had just taken over management of the second-hand furniture shop when Mr Onesmus approached him, and the two agreed to help each other and get their businesses off the ground.
“I started working as a driver for my cousin before deciding to start my own company. I met Pierre in 2017 and just walked into his shop to ask him if I could do some moves for him. I was using a Hyundai bakkie; I had just finished paying it off and it was my only means of transport. Pierre called me one morning to do a delivery, and that’s when I told him what happened, and it wasn’t long before we met up to work on a plan on getting me a new truck,” Mr Onesmus said.
Mr Onesmus, who is originally from Namibia, has been living in Imizamo Yethu for the past nine years with his family.
Mr De Wet said Mr Onesmus was more than just a colleague. He had become a good friend that he could count on.
“We’ve had a great relationship since day one. Sheehama is reliable, he’s professional, he did all the moves for the shop and is someone I really counted on. We eventually heard that the truck was found in Gugulethu, but by the time Sheehama got there, the truck had already been stripped and burnt, and there was nothing left of it. I then called a friend of mine, Catherine, who works at BackaBuddy, and in just over an hour we had a campaign up and running to help raise funds for a new truck. We also had a story published in the Sentinel which was incredible because our campaign then gained a lot of traction and people started making donations,” said Mr De Wet.
Catherine du Plooy, who is the chief operating officer at BackaBuddy, said their campaign to raise R60 000 had done really well in a short space of time.
“BackaBuddy is an online crowdfunding platform where anyone can raise funds (for a cause) that they are passionate about. It works great when a friend stands up for somebody else, so in Pierre and Sheehama’s case it worked great,” said Ms Du Plooy.
In the end, Mr Onesmus used the funds to buy an engine from a truck that had been written off and the body of a truck with no engine to build his new company vehicle.