While working at the Mashaba’s, Thabiso saw appalling things, Mr Mashaba’s daughter was a substance abuser. She would often lock herself in her room and she would always be visited by strange characters. These were kids who were rude and always looking down on Thabiso because he was a young garden boy. They would never greet and would go straight to Naledi’s room.

Naledi allowed her friends to disrespect Thabiso and would not reprimand them when they called Thabiso all sort of names, nevertheless, their behaviour never bothered Thabiso.

“Malambane,” one friend of Naledi’s friends called Thabiso.

Another one said, “Come to work for me, you would make a good garden boy and those clothes suit you” while laughing.

He always said to himself, “You might undermine me now but one day I will have a house like this one”, pointing the house of Mr Mashaba.

Mr Mashaba’s daughter would also be picked up by her friends on a Friday to go to a groove, even when Mr Mashaba and Mrs Mashaba are around.

“Oh, I’m exhausted!” said Thabiso to Mr Mashaba’s maid.

“It must be exhausting to work all day with no rest, but you are still young and full of energy, I’m certain you manage perfectly,” replied the cleaner.

It was for the first time in a long time for Thabiso to talk to other workers of Mr Mashaba’s. Usually everyone would do their job and leave.

“Are you happy with the friends that Naledi hangs with Ma?” asked Thabiso to the maid.

“Stay away from that child my boy, in fact stay away from the Mashaba’s business and affairs. That child is possessed and the things she does are horrible.” The cleaner responded with extreme seriousness, she was reprimanding Thabiso harshly.

Now Thabiso became more curious to know why he was told to stay away from the business of the Mashaba’s family.

“What makes you say that? Please do not tell me I will be in trouble Ma.” Thabiso was now starting to be nervous.

She looked around and whispered, “My child, Naledi once stole Mr Mashaba’s car to go to a party and on her was back from the party there was a hijacking incident and the car was taken.”

“However, I knew that Naledi had planned the whole thing, she didn’t know how to drive in a busy road but surprisingly she got all the way to the party alone.” The maid continued.

“The whole thing to me seemed planned, there was no scratch on her body, no sign of trauma and she was very chilled about the whole matter.”

“The two boys who hijacked the car were found by Mr Mashaba, few days later they were reported missing. Nobody knows what happened to them.” She bent her head and continued, “does it not feel strange to you that Mr Mashaba is not always available when it is time for us to knock off? Whenever I work on weekends he is hardly here.”

“How is it that a man who owns only a shisa nyama can afford to hire three workers, pay them and hire a lot of workers for his shisa nyama, the one and only big shisa nyama in Ikhutseng with no competition?”

“Those who have tried to come up with the same business idea failed within months.” Ma Dorothy concluded.

Thabiso was surprised and shocked at the same time. It started to hit him that he had been deceived by Mr Mashaba’s appearance. He had looked like man who made money genuinely, although, there was no signs of what other things Mr Mashaba was doing.

The man was good at hiding whatever he did. He would always come home clean, during the day, he wouldn’t be available even at the shisa nyama.

Tell us: Do you think Mr Mashaba is not what he seems?