Piet Mothepu: Creating A Legacy

Piet Mothepu and his wife, Maria, have been farming on Kirkdale in the Koppies area of the Free State for three years.

- Izak Hofmeyr

“I am renting the farm through the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development on a 30-year lease agreement with the option to buy. When I first started farming in 2010, I leased a farm in Steynsrus. After that we moved to two different farms, the first in Edenville, which I leased, and the second in the Sasolburg area, which consisted of 200ha of leased municipal land. This allowed me to gradually grow my farming activities to where I am today.”

Piet says he still considers himself an emerging farmer. He has 80 cows, but once he surpasses the 100-cow mark, he will consider himself a fully-fledged commercial farmer.

“Of the 80 cows on the farm, I received 35 through the Sernick/Jobs Fund scheme, with the understanding that I have to give back 40% of the offspring. This is a very good deal because there is no way that I would have been able to afford 35 topquality cows on my own.”

Previously, Piet was a full-time shopkeeper and owned three supermarkets in Sasolburg. These days, he is involved in construction and has also opened two new supermarkets, both called Mothepu Superstores, in Parys. He plans to market most of the products produced on the farm through these supermarkets.

“Although we plan to produce a variety of products on the farm, I am a cattle farmer at heart. This year, however, I partnered with my neighbour and we have planted 70ha to maize as well as a variety of vegetables. In addition, my wife has a piggery with some 20 sows. Most of the maize is earmarked to go into the swine feed.”

Sernick plays a leading role