“I was always a control freak, searching for the power which gangsterism provided for me,” says Kurt van Eeden. That is why he got involved in high school, at the age of 13, in drinking and smoking cigarettes. He left school in 1986 after failing Standard 8 (Grade 10) and started working at his family-owned business. At the same time, he qualified as a sewing machine mechanic and learned several other practical skills. It was these skills that he later used effectively during his criminal activities.
Kurt got involved with gangsterism. He eventually lost his right thumb in a fight, but that was not a serious enough warning for him to leave the gang. He says his thought pattern back then was that the taxi drivers should die because they wanted to take over the gangsters’ territory. He then joined the killers in the Heideveld territory. They were feared by many. They robbed people and stole from everybody who was in their way, and the cases accumulated. Kurt was 20 when he landed in jail again, and during this time, his first daughter was born. The mother of his child was only 17.
In prison, he became a target because of his gangsterism history. Around eight months into his prison sentence, his daughter’s mother got involved with another man, and that threw him over the edge. It motivated him to start with intense studies about how to harm not only himself but also other people. “I now know exactly how to bring great bodily harm to people,” says Kurt. “I was fully committed to becoming a gangster again. The gangsters recruited me, and I became a leader. I was a big guy in the gangster world, giving me the power I craved.
Kurt said, “In 2015, things slowly began to change for me. I visited my Uncle Bruce, who is a pastor, and I told him that I was ready to give my life to the Lord Jesus. He took me to the branch of KwaSizabantu Mission in Malmesbury. After I finished the program, I even started to work at the aQuellé factory in Franschhoek. Sadly, I ran away from them in February 2019. During the pandemic, I was smoking and using drugs and still involved in prostitution activities. My uncle came to the house where I lived then, telling me he wanted me to change. He booked a ticket to KwaSizabantu in Kranskop. I thought I would only stay for two weeks, but I am still here years later, working at the aQuellé factory.
“It was intimidating for me at first because the people told me they loved me. I thought they lied to me because I thought I was not loveable. After a while, I realised that it was true. They love me unconditionally, despite my past.”
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