Resilience is the name of the game: Cecilia Makgatho's journey to a life in farming

In another life, Cecilia Nthabeleng Makgatho might have been behind a movie camera instead of a kraal gate. The aspiring filmmaker had long dreamed of producing films, and by early 2020, she was preparing to leave for New York to pursue postgraduate studies in film production. But when Covid-19 struck, her plans - and her world - came to a sudden halt.

- By Susan Marais

“At first, I was heartbroken that I couldn't start studying,” she recalls. “But I thought, it’s just a delay. I'll go when things calm down.” She had no idea how profoundly the pandemic would reshape her life.

Lockdown on the farm initially felt like a school holiday, more retreat than responsibility. Yet during that time, Cecilia began learning more about the farming principles her mother had used to run the operation.

Rooted in farming

Her parents, Assyia Tlou and Primerose Makgatho, both originally from Limpopo, had founded the AP Agricultural Primary Cooperative (Pty) Ltd in 2015 near Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng. There, they raised a prized herd of Nguni cattle on a 639ha farm secured through a 30-year rent-to-own land reform lease from the former Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD).

“My mother used to say we're not security guards just sitting on the land. We must run it profitably,” Cecilia says.

But this story doesn't have a fairy tale ending. In April 2021, tragedy struck: Cecilia's mother, father, and older brother died within days of each other due to Covid-19 complications. “It was unbearable,” she says. "They were my foundation. My parents built everything we had - the farm, the cooperative, our name. My brother was meant to carry that forward. When they all passed, I felt like the ground opened up beneath me.”

Though she had grown up around the animals, farming had never been her world and running the operation herself was never part of the plan. “For months, I was lost,” she admits. “The farm was quiet, and so was I. I didn't know what to do next.”

Then came a phone call that changed everything.

The turning point