There’s BIG financial trouble brewing in 7de Laan right now. It seems that everyone or at least some characters are going through some or other financial crisis.
First there’s the same old broke Marko who works his butt off to pamper girls who just use him to go on expensive dates *cough mystery girl Tamsin cough*. Marko is one man who has never made sound financial decisions. He’s always involved in some kind of stunt to make extra cash like the time he, Matrone, Aggie and Maria were involved in the mampoer making scam. When the going was good, the cash rolled in and Aggie was able to buy ear-rings in all colours, Maria was able to buy some building materials for her never finished house in Qwa-Qwa and Marko, well Marko just blew it all on a girl.
There was also the time that Marko was big on internet dating and he “dated” a girl living in Kazakstan, eventually the poor girl trying to escape the war over in her country decided to come to SA where she could meet her rich businessman internet boyfriend. We had to see how Marko borrowed George’s car to make a good impression, pretend to have his own business and even used the Terreblanche house as his place of residence. Marko even went so far as to borrow R25000 to send money to the girls’ family who were suffering as a result of the war in Kazakstan.
We all knew the fake accent and scheme this girl was pulling to pretend to be a foreigner was all false, she was none other than a good old South African white girl trying to scam a good guy out of his pennies. What’s the saying about a fool and his money being parted well Marko is always the fool in 7de Laan but it somehow runs in the family as we’ve found out recently.
One would think that a man having two jobs would at least get by but not Marko. He and Aggie came up with the brilliant idea of opening up a cleaning service and things are going well for them since they’ve got quite a few contracts and yet Marko is still broke halfway through the month. Over time Marko has learnt how to make money and lose it too, he should be quite the expert by now and you would think his situation could not get worse but…..
In enters Diederik, Marko’s cousin from Prieska. He seems like an easy going guy with a good heart and after moving in with Marko in the cottage at Charmaine’s house, he’s offered a job as a waiter in Oppiekoffie, a good place for every new character to start out at. During the dance competition we saw how Diederik took bets to see who will emerge as the winner and since most of the bets placed backed the wrong horse err I mean dancers, he scored quite a few bucks. Then he started playing poker at O’malleys and things started looking up for Diederik as he won night after night. Then his luck ran out as we saw him getting mystery phone calls from Brett demanding he pay his debt. He promised and promised as most gamblers do and even took an advance on his salary to get Brett off his back. Kabelo gave him the advance but wanted it back before Charmaine came back from her trip to Zim.
Diederik, under pressure to pay Kabelo, popped in at T&T one afternoon and temptation must’ve got the better of him when he saw all the money in the cash register. We never did see Diederik taking the money in the till but we do know that he was able to pay Kabelo and Marko was short of R2000 in his cash register. No matter how many times he checked and rechecked, Marko could not understand what happened to the R2000, money that he would have to fork out of his own pocket as he does not want to further anger JH who is already stressed out about money.
Diederik already feeling guilty about his cousin’s financial trouble and the fact that Marko might be jobless soon is tempted to gamble again when he runs into Brett, a rugged looking fella who persuades him to join the guys for a game of poker. Brett even goes so far as to offer to borrow him the money to play and Diederik being the foolish little skinny man that he is just gave in to temptation.
Well the next day Diederik is just flashing the cash and in his own words, Lady Luck did’nt just smile on him, she practically laughed out loud. Nearby, a suspicious looking curly haired dude seems very interested in Diederik as we see him watching him and following him to Oppiekoffie. Before we know it, the guys creates a diversion by knocking over a tray that Kabelo was carrying and in the confusion, the guy steals Diederik’s wallet out of his jeans pocket. Maria who’s sole purpose lately is to mop the arcade between Oppiekoffie and the boutique saw the whole thing happen but the guys were too late to catch the curly haired crook. Now Diederik has lost out on cash to settle his debt or perhaps he was planning to help out his cousin and Marko who cannot even afford to pay Vince back is in dire financial straits as well.
A fool that is Marko and an empty vessel who makes a hell of a lot of noise which is Diederik, what are the cousins going to do now to keep their heads above water?
On a much bigger and grander scale is the folly of the Terreblanche bunch.
People who we’ve looked up to and admired, respected and aspired to be like, ok I’m kidding but nevertheless, these pillars of the community have made an even bigger financial blunder than those smallsmack cousins can even dream of.
It all started with the Boutique, ok it probably started way before that with the Gecko disaster, paying out Carlos, taking second and third bonds on their properties, going on numerous overseas holidays and investing in rotten deals. It’s just been one bad financial decision after the other.
The biggest one to date is the one that might break the camel’s back, their R2 million investment in a coffee plantation with Robyn de Swardt, At the time JH was skeptical but all that greedy Madel saw were rand signs, a way for the Terreblanches to finally get out of the financial trouble they were in. Now excuse me if I’m not too clued up with these matters but don’t one invest money that actually belongs to you? Why would anyone want to borrow money to invest in something that might or might not pay off? To my mind that is such a huge risk, not even worth taking and I’m amazed that the bank in Hillside actually granted the Terreblanches the R2 million rand loan.
Coming back to the Boutique, before Robyn was exposed for the fraud that she is, Dezi and JH became the new owners of the Boutique. Dezi wanted to relaunch the boutique and give the place a makeover but JH did’nt want them to spend too much as they were already just making ends meet.
Then their stock was brought over to be kept in the storeroom and we all know what happened after that. The fire alarm went off due to an iron being left on and burning the clothes, the sprinklers came on and soaked every thread of clothing in the storeroom. The bad news was that everything was damaged beyond repair and had to be sold as second hands at a spaza shop. To add fuel to the already smouldering fire Dezi had completely forgotten to take out insurance on their stock, an error which has cost her dearly.
Forgotten to take out insurance on stock worth thousands of rands, are you kidding me? I don’t even want to drive a new car unless it’s been insured. Forget my foot!
This was the start of big problems between Dezi and JH. JH told Dezi that they would have to shut the doors on the boutique and as far as he was concerned that was that. Dezi secretly went behind JH’s back (while he was babysitting mum overseas) to try and save the boutique by using Felicity Fashions and now its all blown up in her face.
Through clever investigative work on the part of Danny, Altus and San Mari, they exposed Robyn as being a fraudster who has embezzled millions of rands over the years. She’s the same woman who stole from San Mari’s dad causing his business to go bankrupt and San Mari was too involved to think logically. She stupidly confronted the woman on her own and Robyn who is just too clever to let a dimwitted little pipsqueak like San Mari have her locked up, escaped with all her stolen millions and was never to be heard from again.
The story could’ve ended badly for all parties concerned but luckily for Altus, he has now opened his own business creatively called Bruynwaves with his corny slogan “Altus De Bruyn is making waves in the Laan”. Things are looking up for him and Danny with most of KDL’s clients moving their contracts over to our Altie’s little business.
Things are going downhill very fast for our not so fortunate Terreblanches. Meanwhile Madel is gallivanting in China, she had better stick to eating with chopsticks since there wont be fine cutlery left when she returns, if she returns as her death has been predicted once she hears the dreadful news of her once bicycle shop having to be shut.
The same bank who stupidly borrowed money to the Terreblanches has now made an application to the courts to have the Terreblanches declared insolvent. Yep the old saying “laugh then the world laughs with you, cry and then you cry alone”, well businesses work like that as well, when you’re good and earning an income they’re begging you to shop with them, promising you huge loans but the moment you become unemployed, they will quickly blacklist you and not want anything to do with you. Yep that’s business as JH found out.
JH decided to keep this itty bitty news from his wife and as things go in the Laan, Dezi was bound to find out as the rumous started spreading thick and fast. Oom Francois missed out on the biggest and juiciest news EVER in the history of 7de Laan but our resident gossip queen Zinzi, was quite eager to take his place.
Once she heard the news from Xander, who claimed its confidential information but he went ahead any way and told Vanessa even though he knew Zinzi was right there hanging onto his lips. No sooner had he confirmed that they are basically bankrupt when Zinzi sprinted out there, raced like a mad thing to Oppiekoffie and without noticing JH drinking coffee with Ryno, she spilled the latest news to Charmaine, Kabelo and Tessa.
To say JH was angry is an understatement, he took Zinzi by the ears, pulled her across Oppiekoffie and threatened to cut it off if she continues listening to rubbish and spreading it as truth. Ok he did’nt really do that but would’nt that have been much more fun. Poor Zinzi was very upset, this was the first time that she was really scolded and publicly too, she got all emotional and begged Charmaine to give her the day off. Charmaine further scolded her telling her she’s not getting off and she deserved what JH told her, she had better apologise to him. The next day when JH came to drink coffee, Zinzi gave a very cute apology and all was forgiven.
Not all was forgiven between JH and Dezi though, once Dezi heard that she might have to move back to the girls’ flat and not enjoy Evelina’s breakfasts anymore, she really gave it to JH for keeping the secret from her. The two broke into a massive argument that only married couples will understand and are now avoiding each other like the plague.
Were we supposed to feel sorry for JH last night having his dinner alone? Ryno rocked up and JH told him about his mother putting Waenhuiskrans in Christelle’s name in case something happens to her overseas, was this a clue that Madel might overcome something whilst in China because TVSA member Charmed_Dude confirmed that the actress’ name has been removed from the credits. Will Madel be fortunate enough to die rather than being embarrassed about losing all her assets? Either way, she would’nt survive the scandal so it’s best she remains clueless.
The conversation soon turned to JH’s marriage and Ryno tried to give him some sound marital advice but JH was having none of it. How dare he, Ryno, who’s been through two divorces, a dead wife, an ex Hollywood fiancé and mentally ill wife who’s sitting in Spain dare to give him marital advice, go save your own marriage Ryno and leave me be. Well it was’nt those words exactly but he did mention the two divorces and Ryno tried to reason with him about having experience and losing earthly things is not a patch on losing Dezi but JH, the stubborn fool basically chased the only friend he has out of the house, a house that might very soon be repossessed.
So who will survive their financial troubles, what desparate lengths will they go to and who will emerge as the BIGGEST LOSER?
Will JH and Dezi’s marriage be saved, will Marko and San Mari lose their jobs and will Diederik admit to stealing the R2000?
Tune in to find out all this and more.
7de Laan
Mondays to Fridays
SABC 2
18:30
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