Simon Nare

Simon Nare

A pensioner whose dream led him to dig for hidden treasure in a shack refuses to stop digging.

Three months ago William Sibeko and other pensioners started digging for Krugerrands at Zenzele informal settlement outside Daveyton on the East Rand.

Sibeko's dream led him to widow Raela Ndobe's shack. He and his friends paid her R4000 to move her shack a few metres. An agreement was signed and members of the local ward committee acted as witnesses.

The group started digging in November. But so far, no gold has been found.

But Sibeko is not deterred.

"I still have hope. We will find the gold. I can't say when, but we will find it. You must have patience for this type of thing," he said.

Sibeko believes the ancestors of the people who buried the gold visited him in his dream. He said white soldiers had buried the gold.

"You have to make peace with them if you want the job to proceed smoothly," Sibeko said.

He said the ancestors sometimes asked for liquor.

The group then bought a bottle of Johnnie Walker whiskey and left it in the hole.

Now there is a heap of soil higher than the shack. The hole is so deep that after it rains the group spend an entire day removing water from it.

But Ndobe is concerned that heavy rains might cause her to drown in her shack.

"I am scared. The deeper they dig, the riskier it becomes."

Ndobe said that according to their agreement, the pensioners should have stopped digging.

"We agreed on three weeks. It is February now and they are still digging. The ward committee and police told them to stop, but they just carry on," Ndobe said.