First Make It Work, Then Survive, Then Prosper

After playing a significant role in corporate South Africa, Dr Reuel Khoza, former chairperson of Nedbank and Eskom, decided to turn his focus back to his roots in the farming sector. He spoke to Lindi Botha about practical transformation and taking hands with commercial farmers.

- Lindi Botha

At the age of 68 and with six business books and a PhD behind him, Reuel Khoza has turned his attention to his original passion: farming. As the owner of the second largest avocado pack house in South Africa, Koeltehof Packers in Kiepersol, Mpumalanga, he has started a new career when most people would be retiring.

Investing in South Africa’s fast-growing avocado industry, previously unknown to him, he fell back on his father’s wisdom.

“He taught me that when in a new situation, exercise ‘intelligent ignorance’. This means you position yourself as a learner and absorb everything you can.”

RETURNING TO FARMING

Khoza grew up in Bushbuckridge, just outside Hazyview in Mpumalanga. His grandfather owned a small herd of cattle and he and his cousins alternated herding duties with school.

“My grandfather saw potential in me, so I began to go to school full-time. But the love of farming was already instilled in me.”

He tells how he always slows down when driving past cattle on trips to the Lowveld with the family. “They get so irritated with me. I tell them I’m admiring the cattle. So when I turned 60, my wife bought me a Boran heifer, and a new career in farming was born.” Khoza has since expanded his herd to 400 head on a farm in Machadodorp, near Mbombela.

In 2007, he began looking for a farm in the Lowveld that would also be the family home. As a result, he was shown Koeltehof farm.

“The investment was a bit of a stretch. But when my granddaughter saw the Wendy house in the yard, she pulled me aside and said, ‘Umkhulu, buy it!’”