Hoping for bridge to a better life

A shy East London maintenance technician who once lost almost everything to drug addiction is now on South African reality television show Die Brug, the first season of which was nominated for an international Emmy award.

Set in the Outeniqua Mountains on the Garden Route Dam in George, contestants find themselves living in a very rudimentary wooden cabin and having to build a bridge to a R1m prize amid setbacks, deprivation and game-changing surprises.

For East London’s Jaco Davel, 43, signing up for the show meant he could take a break from work and family responsibilities to simply indulge himself.

And, if he wins the R1m prize, it means he could get himself out of a financial pickle.

“Financially I’m not well off. It’s hard with my wife not working. She has pancreatitis. And my parents-in-law also stay with us so it’s not easy.”

Davel, a maintenance technician, lives with his wife of 17 years, Inge, and their two children Christiaan, 14, who attends Marlow Agricultural School in Cradock, and Mika, 13, a keen hockey player for Ooskus Gymnasium .

“But at the end of the day, it was a challenge for myself. I never do anything for myself. I put everybody else first and I put myself last.

“ My kids are my life so I did it to show them you can do anything you want to in life.”

But in order to do that, he had to dig deep to overcome his naturally reserved personality and befriend a group of strangers.

Davel’s interest in the reality show was piqued after he watched the first season of Die Brug which was filmed in the Cape.

“It looked real. It didn’t look fake. It looked hard and I liked the combination of the people.

“I’m quite a reserved person. I don’t just walk into a place and start talking. I’m an introvert.”

Once he’d sent his application, self-doubt crept in.

“I thought: who would pick a guy like me? I’ve never been in with everybody.

“I’m just a normal guy who works with his hands. I don’t have money in the bank, so who’s going to pick me?

“I don’t have a lot of friends because I try to concentrate on work and family life,” Davel said.

He lives in a farmhouse on the road to Stutterheim and works for an automotive component supply company  situated at East London’s IDZ.

So when he heard he had made it onto the show he was thrilled.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch at the launch of the Kyknet show at the Labia cinema in Cape Town, Davel opened up about a time when things fell apart.

Though he is now a committed and hard-working family man, his life was derailed 13 years ago when he was gripped by addiction.

“When I started my own engineering workshop business in Vryheid I only had R30 in my pocket and in my first year I earned a profit of about R1.5m.

“But I got involved with the wrong friends and they pulled me down and I started using drugs and I fell off the path and lost everything.

One New Year’s Eve, his wife’s parents picked her and the children up, leaving Davel, who by now had lost his company, alone and deep in despair.

“My family was gone, I had no company any more, no work. I lost everything, my bakkie was broken down, I had nothing to live for any more. I thought: I’m done.”

Davel made a midnight call to his brother-in-law.

“I told them you might come here and I won’t be here any more.

“They were on holiday in the Drakensberg but they packed up all their stuff and got to me at 3am. .”

Davel spend three months in rehab cleaning up his act.

“While I was in rehab my wife wanted to divorce me, so I wasn’t just fighting my addiction I was fighting for my marriage too.

Davel got back on his feet and managed to find work and, years later, is proud of the turnaround he has made.

“Now it’s just work, my kids and my wife. I haven’t looked back since I left rehab.”

When Davel walked onto the outdoorsy set of Die Brug, with it’s ropey cabin and cramped sleeping quarters, he immediately felt at ease, despite his characteristic reluctance to mingle with strangers.

“Everyone made me feel at home so I was grateful. It was like being with family. We looked after each other and it was great.”

He said he had no strategy going into the game, bar to stay to the end, despite wanting to win the money to educate his children and replace his broken car.

“I got along with everyone. I put my heart out there.

“ I could put to the back of my mind what was happening at home — how would I pay this or get money for that, and could just be there for myself. To give myself something.”

Like most competitive reality shows, contestants jostled for dominance or made sneaky strategic moves, but Davel, armed with useful technical skills, said he had tried to be of service.

“I just helped others. If I saw someone struggle, I left my stuff and went to help.

“That’s the kind of person I am. I am the same person outside and inside the game. Because if I hurt someone it hurts me.

“They even called me the gentle giant.”

Die Brug (which has English subtitles) is on Kyknet at 8pm on Thursdays or on Catch Up.

Daily Dispatch