AN EX-GANG member who is now a barber and pastor is helping learners from his community in Factreton look fresh for their back-to-school with free haircuts.<\/p>\n
Reuben Stone, 28, was once a member of the Numbers gang in Factreton, Kensington and returned to this Sunday for a different purpose – to give back to the youth in the same neighbourhood he once terrorised.<\/p>\n
Boys lined up at local war councillor Cheslyn Steenberg\u2019s home from 10am to get their hair cut and looking smart before the 2026 school year begins on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Reuben, who has transformed to lem for good, said that he was more than eager to serve his community.<\/p>\n
He told the Daily Voice: \u201cI wanted to cut the boys hair not just because I grew up in the area but because I was involved with crime and gangsterism back then within the Factreton community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was sentenced to seven to ten years in prison and was released on 1 September 2023. Coming out with a different mindset and perspective on life caused me to want to render my service back because I was affiliated with those who would put the community in an unsafe state.<\/p>\n
Reuben gave his life to Christ on 27 March 2021 while in Victor Verster Prison, now called the Drakenstein Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n
He has since been involved with prison ministry, leading many out of gangsterism in prison and speaking to the youth.<\/p>\n
He got a bursary at Kalk Bay College where he studied Theology and graduated as a senior Theologian and is now registered as a Pastor in Ministerial working and religious studies.<\/p>\n
Reuben added: \u201cIt truly makes me happy to give back and try to motivate them to become better where they find themselves. I believe that they will good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile innie Bonteheuwel, Gentspride Barbershop owner Adiel Salie teamed up with ward councillor Angus McKenzie to give boys and girls in the area a good hair day for this week\u2019s return to school.<\/p>\n
Salie said: \u201cIt was a very good outcome for all the underprivileged kids. It was great to see how we all did this thing together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people were so appreciative, because the kids know us and maybe some kids can\u2019t afford to cut hair and yesterday was their day to pick a barber where they want to have their hair cut.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AN EX-GANG member who is now a barber and pastor is helping learners from his community in Factreton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[11998,12002,11997,3097,11999,12000,11995,11996,11994,131,12001],"class_list":{"0":"post-18844","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-cheslyn-steenberg","9":"tag-christ","10":"tag-facreton","11":"tag-god","12":"tag-kalk-bay-college","13":"tag-kensington","14":"tag-member","15":"tag-pastor","16":"tag-reuben-stone","17":"tag-south-africa","18":"tag-victor-verster-prison"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}