Apologies to my fellow 7de laan fans, I know I’m late with my article but I’ll blame it on "that time of the year". I’ve decided that since the Tokkie storyline was at the centre of everything happening in 7de Laan over the past two weeks, I’ll dedicate this entire article to him. I’ll follow up later with the rest of the daily dramas in 7de Laan.
When Tokkie dies in what looks like a suicide the whole of Hillside are torn in two. At first, everyone thinks he took his own life because he couldn’t bear to face the public and once again he’s disappointed the love of his life, Inge and his beloved daughter Emma. Before I get ahead of myself, lets have a look at the events leading up to Tokkie’s death.
There’s major speculation about Tokkie’s innocence after the news article which Nellie wrote appeared on the front page of the Hillside Times. The article questioned Tokkie’s involvement in the Imnyama Bay scam in which Lindie Maree, the personal assistant to said Mr Vermaak, (an eighty year old senile businessman and owner of the prominent land at Imnyama Bay) forged his signature in most of his busness transactions thereby embezzling money from the deals which she made on his behalf.
Nellie went all the way to Cradock, found answers to what he was looking for and even questioned Tokkie about his involvement, which he vehemently denied. Nellie took matters into his own hands and assumed Tokkie was involved since the man has a bad history of dodgy deals, he did’nt outrightly say Tokkie was involved but the implication was enough for everyone to judge and sentence him, including all of us here at TVSA.
All hell broke loose when Nellie printed the article but the people who suffered the most from the scandal was Inge and Emma. When Marko warned Tokkie that the police will arrest him shortly, he booked himself on the first flight to London, now if that doesn’t show guilt, then I don’t know. Since Tokkie’s cellphone was off, Inge received a number of calls from people claiming to be Tokkie’s business partners in the Imnayama Bay deal which Inge couldn’t understand. She also received a call from Suzette at Hillside Travel confirming Tokkie’s one way ticket to London. This was enough to convince Inge that her man was indeed guilty and once again he was dropping her by choosing to run away.
Tokkie is alone in his hotel room writing a letter to Inge. He tells her how sorry he is for hurting her, how much he loves her and that she’ll understand one day why he did what he did. Meanwhile Emma approaches Inge and tells her that she will give her father a chance to tell her his side of the story. She, however, never does get the chance to do so.
A very angry Inge makes her way to Tokkie’s hotel room and the two get into a major argument. She calls him out on his lies and he tries to cover up saying he was planning to fly to PE to sort out this mess. She tells him she knows about his single flight to London and he changes his story saying he would’ve sent for her at a later stage. He tries to kiss her but Inge was having none of it, she pushes him off her and before we know it, Tokkie was pushed too hard and too far as we see him hurtling out the window and a shocked Inge calling out his name. Unsure of what to do next, Inge runs to the telephone but changes her mind and makes her getaway.
The next day Inge is early at the Boutique and when Alyce comes in, a guilty Inge is all nervous and on edge. Alyce assumes it’s because she’s cut up about the Tokkie scandal. Later when Emma is with Inge begging her to give her dad another chance, a police detective walks in looking for Emma.
He gives her the bad news that her dad is dead and how they found him on the pavement outside the Eisenhower Hotel. Emma is shocked and Inge tries her best to look less guilty.
As talk of Tokkie’s death spreads like wildfire around Hillside, Emma tries to come to terms with the fact that she was unable to make peace with him. Meanwhile everyone goes to Emma and Inge to sympathise but Inge’s guilt at what really happened makes her jittery and nervous.
Marko brings Inge a copy of the letter that Tokkie wrote and soon the whole of Hillside is buzzing with the news that Tokkie committed suicide. Inge seems unsettled with the letter that Tokkie wrote to her and when she thinks nobody’s looking she burns the letter. Unfortunately for her, Xander saw the whole act and told Felicity about it, they both seem confused as to why Inge would burn the letter and realize that something clearly does not make sense.
The day of Tokkie’s funeral service has arrived as everyone prepares to pay their respects for Emma’s sake. Inge has decided she does not want to be there and this upsets Emma who tells her she needs to say goodbye but Inge is determined to stay away. Another one not keen on going to the funeral is Vince Meintjies who has decided not to be a hypocrite by attending the funeral of someone who was planning to swindle him out of money. He makes no beans about his feelings and when his father tries to make him feel even a smidgen of sympathy for Tokkie he lays it into him that he’s a fine one to talk, if it were not for him Tokkie would never…. He leaves his sentence hanging in the air, realized what he was saying and all of this in front of Charmaine as well, Nellie storms out of Oppiekoffie angry that everyone seems to think he’s to blame for Tokkie taking his life.
After the funeral service, which we did’nt even get to see, I mean even Nicholas Scott’s funeral was shown to us but shame poor Tokkie does’nt even get a proper send off from the folks at 7de Laan. I suppose they thought there’s been enough morbid scenes of funerals in the show lately, anyone feel like getting married, we need to party again in the Laan. Anyway as I was saying, after the funeral Emma and her mother meet up at the Boekwinkel, why Emma and Ryno’s home cannot be shown beats me, but for some reason a lot of personl scenes meant for a home are shown in the Boekwinkel. The two drink coffee and chat about Tokkie, Emma’s mom finally made peace with the past (alittle too late now, don’t you think) and told Emma how much her father actually cared about her. All her mother’s hate, bitterness and rage has finally been laid to rest along with the object of her hatred.
Soon after the funeral, Ryno hires a lawyer to handle all Tokkie’s affairs. It seems that Tokkie drew up a will a long time ago and named Emma as his sole beneficiary.
A simple man like Tokkie lived a very simple life and all his personal belongings which is only a few boxes full is sent to Emma again at the Boekwinkel. She finds a bunch of letters all addressed to her but was never posted. The letters were written at different stages in Emma’s life and somehow her father always knew what was going on in her life, this is the final proof that Emma needs to know that her father loved her unconditionally.
Just when the dust is about to settle, Nellie receives a call from a contact of his who tells him that Lindie Maree confessed that she worked alone, Tokkie was never involved in the Imnyama Bay scam.
Things are not going well for Nellie at all. He’s getting loads of negative publicity from rival newspapers, letters and calls from the public, not to mention the folk of Hillside all blaming him for literally sending an innocent man to his grave. Mandal, Paula and Aggie try their best to cover for Nellie saying he was only doing his job as a journalist but no matter how everyone like Charmaine and Vince try to console him, Nellie feels like crap and cannot get over what he did. He tries to make amends with both Emma and Inge but they are not wiling to meet him halfway.
It still bothers everyone why an innocent man would commit suicide when he knew that his innocence would’ve been proven sooner or later, Inge can’t handle the questions everyone seems to be asking her.
When it seems that news surrounding Tokkie has finally died down, another mystery comes to light. Not one but quite a number of people claim they invested money in the Imnyama Bay deal with Tokkie, amounts ranging from R100 000 to R300 000 and the people are desparate to get their cash back so they’re contesting the will and putting in their claim for the money. Ryno tells Emma that the land only cost in the region of R600 000 but an amount of R1.2 million has been deposited in Tokkie’s bank account, so it seems the innocent Tokkie was not so innocent afterall.
Ryno tells Nellie the latest news about Tokkie and the money that was found in his account and I’m hoping that Nellie will now stop beating himself up about Tokkie’s suicide.
Inge is planning to leave Hillside for good and to go away on holiday before starting her life anew. She phones her mechanic to service her car telling him she needs it for a long trip.
Nellie makes his way to Charmaine and tells her the latest about the money in Tokkie’s account. Charmaine tells Nellie it does’nt make sense why Tokkie would kill himself if he could just return the money but Nellie reasons that Tokkie did’nt have the guts to face Emma knowing he’s let her down yet again and rather chose a more drastic action.
Later at dinner, Charmaine tells Nellie that he need not feel guilty any longer, the truth is finally out that the man was up to no good. Nellie, however still feels guilt since he was the one who alerted the other investors to suspicious behaviour coming from Tokkie.
A very upset Emma makes her way to Karien and cries on her shoulder about her father’s deceit. Emma is inconsolable saying she wished her father had never come into her life. Karien finds Ryno in the arcade and tells him about Emma being at the flat. The two start speaking about Nellie taking the blame for Tokkie’s suicide and Ryno says that it will probably haunt him forever. They don’t see a guilty looking Inge listening from the Boutique.
Alyce tells Inge that her mechanic phoned in connection with her car and Vince questions whether she’s planning a trip. She later phones her mechanic and shouts at him for giving out her personal details to her assistant, he should just fix the water pump and get her car in order since she needs it urgently.
Later when the Boutique has already closed, Alyce and Tessa are having wine and discussing their working lives when the telephone rings. It’s obvious the caller wants to speak to Inge but upon hearing she’s already left, the person leaves a message with Alyce and the message causes Alyce major concern, judging by the look on her face.
We later see Alyce making her way to Nellie at the Hillside offices and she tells him that she has information which concerns her. Apparently the call she received earlier was from the travel agency wanting to know if Tokkie’s single plane ticket to London should be cancelled and the crux of the message was that the departure date was the same evening Tokkie allegedly committed suicide.
Alyce and Nellie can’t understand why a man would book and pay for a ticket to London if he was planning to kill himself. The mystery continues…..
How Inge thought she was gonna escape the claws of justice is beyond me, its clear that the truth will be revealed shortly.
Tune in to find out...
All I can say is I’m so glad that the Tokkie’s character is finally out of the show, he was a creepy character and no good for Inge and with his death there’s no way he’ll be coming back again.
REST IN PEACE TOKKIE LE ROUX
7de Laan
Mondays - Fridays
SABC 2
18:30