Businessman gives cash and TV to convent |22 October 2008

In a ceremony to hand over the gifts, Mr Likhachev said he made the donation to help the local community where he plans to start up his business.

He also said he is making the gesture as he believes people who have money should help the less fortunate.

Apart from the 49-inch TV set – complete with one year’s subscription to cable TV – Mr Likhachev has also given the convent some R65,000 to be used for renovation work.

Father Gustave Lafortune, who was there to represent Bishop Denis Wiehe, said he is not only very grateful to the businessman for making such a generous donation to the convent but is also happy with the way Mr Likhachev linked his gesture with the one carried out at Vennstown – now known as the Mission at Sans Souci – so many years ago.

Mission Ltd, a company Mr Likhachev is heading, plans to turn the Mission site into a place where people can learn about its history. This has links to its original use as the first school established for the children of slaves and their descendants.

The elderly people living at the convent received individual gifts during the handover ceremony and were then treated to a reception courtesy of Mr Likhachev.