Bay Primary School in Fish Hoek celebrated the life of the town’s beloved ice cream man on the first day of school last week by buying each child an ice cream from his business.
John Rubaya, 40, affectionately called John the Ice Cream Man by the community, died at his Ocean View home on Tuesday December 31 after a short illness.
To celebrate his life and pay their respects, the school put up a photograph of Mr Rubaya and his bicycle.
“Thank you, John, for your caring and generous nature, your kind words, and your beautiful smile. You will be missed as will your bell ringing through the streets of Fish Hoek. RIP and fly free,“ said school principal Melvin Beckmann.
A close friend, Caitlin O’Reilly, who met Mr Rubaya while she was in primary school said he had been sick for about two weeks with bad fevers before he died.
She said that for many years, Mr Rubaya had worked for a member of the community who had the Nestlé distribution, and then he had started working for himself and that’s when he had expanded.
After his death, Ms O’Reilly met with Mr Rubaya’s family and started a fund-raiser for the R27 000 to repatriate his body to Zimbabwe on Sunday January 19.
Dozens of messages sharing experiences with Mr Rubaya and his impact poured in on social media groups.
Andrea Willmore said she had had an old ice cream bicycle that she had bought to renovate for children’s parties.
“It was inside my entrance gate, and he (Mr Rubaya) rang my bell and asked if he could buy it,” she said.
The bike needed new tyres and a chain and she thought she would never get around to painting it so she swapped it for two boxes of ice cream and the bike became the third in his fleet of ice cream bikes.
“He was a great entrepreneur,” she said.
Ms O’Reilly recalled how hearing his bell made her stop in her tracks and race to find him to buy an ice cream.
Ms O’Reilly said Mr Rubaya’s colleague, Dennis Banawe, would continue selling ice creams, and the community could continue to support his business when they heard the bell.
“At the moment, Dennis is doing his best to get to as many areas as he can during the week,” she said, adding that Mr Banawe usually sat outside Sun Valley Primary after school and then went on his way from there.
Ms O’Reilly said the community had been very supportive to help get Rubaya home.
“I want to say a massive thank you to everybody who contributed, shared, and messaged regarding getting John home,” she said.
