Well-known fruit and veg stall burns down

Fee bearing image – Cape Town – 151008 – Shop owner Nafiek Mohammed looks at the damage of what was once his food market. A roadside market that has been in Hanover Park for more than 25 years has burned down. Reporter: Nicolette Dirk. Photographer: Armand Hough

Fee bearing image – Cape Town – 151008 – Shop owner Nafiek Mohammed looks at the damage of what was once his food market. A roadside market that has been in Hanover Park for more than 25 years has burned down. Reporter: Nicolette Dirk. Photographer: Armand Hough

Published Oct 8, 2015

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Nicolette Dirk

A FAMILY-run fruit and vegetable stall, which served the Hanover Park community for more than 30 years, was burnt to the ground early yesterday.

The Mohammeds, who owned the stall, not only sold their fresh produce to the community but also donated generously to needy residents, the local old age home and places of worship, according to residents who helped fruit and vegetable seller Nafiek Mohammed clean up the rubble after the fire.

The Mohammeds made Hanover Park feel like District Six, they said. Mohammed said his late father started the business from scratch 36 years ago, and selling fruit and vegetables was all he and his brother knew.

“After school we used to work here with our father every day. When our teacher wanted us to play soccer at school our father told him we practiced kicking cabbages at his stall. My mother, sisters and two other brothers were in tears last night.

“This is what my late father left for us,” he said.

Deon Africa, one of the residents who helped clean up after the fire yesterday, said he had known the Mohammed family for 19 years and was heartbroken about what happened. “Nafiek is such a good guy. He and his family have helped me so much. Whenever we would need potatoes, onions or even money for electricity, Nafiek would just give it without any questions. He would never turn me away,” he said.

Africa said Mohammed’s father even helped his own father by giving him a job as a security guard at the stall.

Resident Mymoena Jooste said she was shocked at what happened to the family who used to give her food when she struggled financially.

“Since his father started this business, Nafiek and his family have always been here to help the community. When my husband used to leave me, Nafiek would bring bags of groceries to my house. He and his family did not deserve what happened to their business. They made Hanover Park feel like District Six where people cared about each other,” said Jooste.

She said despite the Mohammeds’ business being destroyed yesterday, the family still handed out 300 loaves of bread to residents – something they did every Monday and Thursday. Another resident, Rameez Abrahams, said in the 43 years he had lived in the township the Mohammed family had always been generous to the area’s poor and needy.

“We knew Nafiek’s late father as boeta ‘Nieffie’. They assisted mosques and churches in the area with soup kitchens. People came from other areas because they knew they would get food parcels at their fruit stalls,” he said.

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