After many struggles and disappointments, he eventually did manage to secure a state farm, and when he met his mentor and now close friend, Afrikaner farmer Cois Harman, his path to success was guaranteed. When that didn’t work out too well, he simply refused to give up, knocking on every door he could find.
When Kleinjan eventually did get the chance to go farming, he jumped at it, even if it was with 25 other beneficiaries on a state farm.
A far cry from the days when he worked at the railways and dreamed of one day owning a farm of his own. “A true winner in every respect,” was how the judges described him at the time. It’s one of the most prestigious awards in farming, won by some of the best cattle farmers this country has ever seen, and in 2016 history was made when Klein Gasekoma from Reivilo in the North West province became the first black farmer to win the coveted award of commercial cattle farmer of the year. After all these years he finally was a farmer! And with the expertise, mentorship and export contacts his commercial farmer partner brought, Theo has become a word-class export fruit farmer. In exchange for access to finance, Theo’s partner now owned 48% of the operation, while Theo remained with the controlling 51% share. So he approached one of his commercial farmer clients to whom he had sold bins, and they struck a deal that would change the face of South African agriculture. There was only one small problem – he didn’t have the money. With his ear to the ground, Theo finally heard of a farm for sale. So instead, he started manufacturing and supplying farmers with wooden bins with which to harvest fruit. The spectacular beauty of the fruit farms of the famed Witzenberg valley struck a deep cord with young Theo, but he also knew that the politics of the time prevented him from ever owning one of these farms. Then his father got a job on a fruit farm in the Koue Bokkeveld close to Ceres in the Western Cape, and his life changed forever. The idea should be to make sure that goals are set and worked towards in the right way.Growing up in Williston in the Northern Cape, all Theo van Rooyen wanted to be when he grew up was a sheep farmer. He, however, prescribes a method to: “Start slow and build on it. Bopanna feels that having two careers actually helps him relax. I will curate more blends,” he says delightfully. With a schedule like this, how does the mixed doubles grand slam star take time out for coffee business? “My coffee venture comes as a perfect break after tournaments. He was the only skipper to lead both of his students to the Grand finale, in which Rohan and Saumya attained 2nd and 3rd runner up positions respectively. Bopanna is about to leave for back-to-back tennis tournaments in Rotterdam, Dubai and Miami. DID LiL Masters (Season 2) After DID, Raghav became the skipper of team Raghav Ke Rockstars in DID Lil masters (Season 2) where he choreographed for Saumya Rai and Rohan Parkdale. Till the age of 14, I lived at my estate and watched my father tend the estate,” says Bopanna, who definitely is bang on time with the trend of collaborative artisan coffee. Feedback from them prompted the 37-year-old to launch a master coffee blend recently.Ĭoffee and tennis have been the biggest part of his growing years and so the straddle comes from the heart.
DID LITTLE MASTER SEASON 2 SUMYA AND ROHAN PROFESSIONAL
BENGALURU: Little did professional tennis player Rohan Bopanna know that gifting coffee blends from his estate in Kodagu - to fellow tennis players Mahesh Bhupathi and Bruno Soares - would turn him into an entrepreneur.