Bitter Sweet In Kandyland

You can’t keep a good skellum down: Kandyland’s Pieter van der Watt is still at it. Jack Lundin tracks down the conman’s latest prey.

- Jack Lundin

They’re lIttereD across a wIDe swathe of the country – brothers Denis and Themi Nasis in Germiston; 62-year-old Elayne Henderson in Kempton Park; Gerald Bullen, 76, and son Gavin, 43, in Nelspruit; 60-year-old Sarel Henderson in Meyerton; Jacqui Erasmus and her 23-year-old daughter Bodine in Pretoria. All promised the earth by Kandyland conman Pieter van der Watt and now seriously out of pocket, every one of them mad as a mongoose and baying for their nest eggs.

The stories of Van der Watt’s latest victims make sombre reading. Let’s start with Denis and Themi Nasis, depleted this year by R340,000. For this considerable sum, plus R210,000 for stock, smooth-talking Van der Watt assured the brothers they would be in the big time, with exclusive rights to flog Kandyland’s line of 42 sweeties – including 32 different flavours of the amazing Rainbow Lollies – across the East Rand to top stores like Game, Pick n Pay, Woolworths and Ackermans.

Sales projections that Van der Watt gave them looked good: R11,000/ day, R2.97 million/year. Of that, the brothers’ slice would be 25%: R2,750-a -day, R742,500-a-year.

Noseweek began chronicling the antics of 53-year-old Pieter van der Watt in January 2007 (nose87). That cover story reported that SAPS detectives in Cape Town were investigating complaints from 340 Kandyland investors, who claimed to have lost between R60,000 and R450,000 apiece.

In January 2017 (nose207) we recounted the hazards of investing in one of Kandyland’s sweet-making factory franchises – and how Van der Watt was cashing in on President Mandela’s name by punting a line of Kandyland’s sugar-soaked confectionary as The Madiba Lolly, much to the annoyance of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, custodians of the Mandela trademark.