Inspired after his local security guard had been retrenched and had to make a new living selling boerewors rolls, Jeffrey Doveton decided to transform the man’s broken gazebo into a vendor stand to be proud of.
Cape Town, South Africa (13 January 2025) — Goldsmith Jeffrey Doveton from Cape Town is on a mission to empower street vendors.
It all began late last year, on a fateful day when Jeffrey found himself looking for a local security guard.
As Jeffrey recalls, he noticed that the local security guard at a shop he frequented was no longer there. Concerned, Jeffrey went on a search that led him to the parking lot, where he found the security guard doing something unexpected—selling boerewors rolls.
“Turns out that he had had a stroke and then got retrenched as he could not perform the duties that he needed to,” Jeffrey explains. But, the conditions in which the man sold his good (a flimsy gazebo and a struggling table) made Jeffrey want to help.
“So a plan unfolded in my head to make him a proper ‘Boerewors Stand’,” Jeffrey says. A kindness he fully committed too; he went on to build a whole new stand made entirely of recyclables and scraps!
When the boerewors stand was done, dusted and ready to serve; Jeffrey knew he didn’t want this to be the last time he helped smooth another’s path by transforming something essential. Such was the genesis of The New Beginnings Project!
The idea is to build more units for street vendors who need a helping hand.
“The units will be designed and built to accommodate what they are selling so they will not all be exactly the same.” He adds that the design will allow for the stands to fold up to be boxed and pushed home.
Jeffrey is actively raising funds for his initiative, which will go toward small tools, materials and labour costs.
“I am also hoping that there is a bit extra so that I could maybe add to their existing stock for an extra boost,” he says.
For Jeffrey, it’s the opportunity to spread hope and ignite opportunity.
“What I hope to achieve out of this is to maybe give a little hope to a few, maybe uplift the pavement into a vibrant little market that will give [the street vendors] a little more dignity than sitting out in the hot sun the whole day.”—Jeffrey Doveton.
You can support The New Beginnings Project, here, and keep up with the initiative, here.
Sources: The New Beginnings Project; BackaBuddy
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