WATCH | Petrol attendant to pay lobola with his R25k reward for kindness

When Benson Laka pouredfuelwith a smile and urged a distressed motorist to enter a car competition, little did he know his gesture would earn him a R25,000 reward. Like anypetrol attendant, Laka was simply going about his day in Pretoria when he asked a then-desperate Tembeka Sonkwele if she had a rewards card. “I was feeling very down and sad because I had just lost my job, but Benson [Laka] was very friendly,” said Sonkwele on Thursday.

WATCH | Benson Laka, a petrol attendant who was rewarded with R20,000 from Nedbank and a further R5,000 from Winmore BP for the kindness his showed towards a customer who had just lost her job says he will be using the money to pay lobola for the mother of his children.Video…pic.twitter.com/cZTf87Ngpp “I was wondering how I was going to save on fuel, and he told me about the BP rewards programme with Nedbank. Out of frustration, I had left my phone at home, but Benson [Laka] told me he would wait for me to come back before processing the transaction. In that moment, he was my glimpse of hope.” A few days after Laka and Sonkwele interacted, she received a call from Nedbank informing her that her petrol purchase on the BP rewards card had won her a Mini Cooper.

As the bank representatives were taking her details she informed them about how patient and dedicated Laka was in helping her register for the programme and that he had even allowed her to go home to fetch her phone before she needed to pay for the petrol already poured into her vehicle. Nedbank took it upon themselves to thank Laka for his kindness by rewarding him with an immediate payment of R10,000, and another R10,000 going towards his children’s education. During the moment of celebration on Thursday, Winmore BP station pledged to add R5,000 towards the education investment.

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Laka told Sowetan that he would take some of the R10,000 to pay for his lobola, that he last paid in 2018. “I was in a process of lobola and Covid-19 happened and things became hectic. My wife, who is unemployed, and my two children had to move to a smaller apartment. “Now I will pay off my lobola debt and put food on the table for my children,” he said.

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