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David Williams bears the prison tattoos of the 32 years he spent in prison for murder. Now, a benefactor has paid for the removal of those tattoos to allow David a chance at employment.
Watch the video above to hear David explain why he committed the murder and how he got his tattoos.
Health24 reported: "Now he lives on the streets, but David is determined to stay out of prison and start a new life on the right path. It hasn't been easy so far – a carton of cigarettes costs more than he makes in a month selling singles at R2 a pop, but on most days he makes enough to afford the R22 for a stay at the night shelter. To compound his problems, he has been struggling for over 9 months to get his ID from Home Affairs.
Without an ID, he can't get a job and without a job, he can't build his new life. He tells me he spends hours (valuable hours he could be selling cigarettes), waiting in queues only to be told "Your ID documents have not arrived from Pretoria".
About 18 months ago a man by the name of Fagri Semaar, the then MD of call-centre outsourcing company Teleperformance who also have their offices in 11 Adderley, became intrigued by David's story and concerned about his predicament.
The son of a social worker and now the MD of Serco Global Services, Fagri and his colleagues at Teleperformance started collecting money to pay for a series of laser treatments to have David's facial tattoos removed. They hoped that by removing this barrier, David would be able to get a job, find a stable income and finally turn his life around.
They collected a whopping R20 000, which would cover up to 5 sessions as well as the necessary skin products and transport to and from the clinic."
If you'd like to assist David in any way – either with food, airtime, clothing, shelter and, most of all, a job – you can mail us at community@health24.com and we will forward all messages to him. The Health24 team recently bought him a cellphone, so he will be able to contact you.
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