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Welding his own success SAMANTHA LEE-JACOBS SAMANTHA.LEE@PEOPLESPOST.CO.ZA
@SAMANTHA_LEE121
O
ne grave mistake will follow Mogamat Faried Guyan for the rest of his life but he is not letting it get the better of him. Convicted of murder and sentenced to prison in 2005, Guyan from Tafelsig has turned his life around. “This incident happened in 2002. I shot someone in self-defence and in 2005 I was sentenced to 15 years for murder,” he says. Guyan was the owner of the licensed firearm used in the shooting. His sentence stipulated that if he handed in the firearm and had his license revoked, his sentence would be reduced by five years. While Guyan has served his time in prison, the severity of his crime means his record cannot be expunged. “I went to Pollsmoor Prison first and from there I went to Drakenstein Prison. This is where I started in the workshop,” he says. Having previously worked as a mechanical fitter, Guyan felt right at home in the metal shop where he soon started to learn more about carpentry and bricklaying. “At the workshop, I did sheet and metalwork. I saw how they made the lockers and other metal items. From there I learnt the carpentry trade to increase my knowledge and did construction carpentry to learn how to build a house from scratch,” he says. Because of his background, he would go on to teach and instruct other prisoners. But when he was paroled in October 2010, he was faced with the harsh
realities of life and how hard it would be to find work as a former convict. “When I got out, I could not find a job because of my criminal record. I worked here and there, doing odds and ends,” he says. His criminal record could have held him back but instead, he used his skills in welding to start his own business. “I can do any welding. I had a skill already and I honed my skills while in prison. I was an instructor in prison. Some could not even read. But I had knowledge when I went to prison and I could teach,” he says. “I made a mistake. A big mistake. If I had just walked away none of this would have happened but to defend myself I shot him. I had to go to prison based on the gun law. I accept I’ve done wrong and I had to serve my sentence. It was hard but I had to accept it. I did wrong. I apologised to everyone and I was accepted when I came back. There was no problem for me coming home. I am free.” Guyan, who grew up living in Tafelsig, remembers the area as being very different from how it is today. “I was an aggressive guy when I was younger and this incident has taught me to rather observe and walk away. When I was in prison, I attended crossroads and restorative justice classes. In the class, they asked people who their role models were and people would say people like Mandela and so on. The facilitator was so clever, he gave us a mirror, told us to open our eyes and see who our role models are. I am my own role model, no one else. You may want to be another guy but you will never be another person. You must be your own role model and I learnt to do that,” he says. V Continued on page 3.
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