Life skills and support all in a days work at Greyton apple and pear farm.
Just nine kilometres outside of the picturesque village of Greyton is Kootjie and Isa Viljoen’s farm Oewerzicht. There, together with daughter Catherien and the twins Danielle and Phillip, they grow apples and pears for Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing as well as farm with wheat and livestock. Oewerzicht is also known for its herd of Reebok, birds such as blue cranes, secretary birds, and large flocks of guinea fowl and accommodation and wedding venue.
What makes this idyllic setting even more special is the commitment that the owners have to growing and developing the potential of their most valued resource: their people.
“We’re a Christian farm and start each day with prayer”, Kootjie Viljoen says, “and even though we have an open-door policy when it comes to dealing with our family of staff, we also know that there are some things that one doesn’t want to talk to your employer about.”
As a member of Two-a-Day, one of the owners of Tru-Cape, Viljoen brings the benefit of their full-time social worker Carmenita Philander to his Oewerzicht team. “At first there were maybe one or two cases but as staff have developed their trust in her the number of people seeking her help has grown. Although most of the staff who work at Oewerzicht live in the nearby village of Genadendal, the farm provides transport. “Our soccer team includes Masixole Mbolo and Mbulelo Mgxa who are keen players who have a match each weekend and we support them with transport, kit and a place to practice.”
Masixole Mbolo and Mbulelo Mgxa in the Oewerzicht Boerdery soccer team.
According to Viljoen, developing staff potential is so important that they regularly hold training for all staff. Not only technical training which is offered via Two-a-Day but also life skills training which is provided by Sandra van der Merwe of ELI. “Personal growth starts by taking responsibility for your own happiness, growth, problems and relationships and our programmes help facilitate this”, van der Merwe says explaining that one can learn any new skill, if the individual wants to and as a result of a lack of knowledge, people perish who do not know any better so it is my privilege to teach them to make good choices concerning their work, home, community which leads to good character. “People are normally hired for their skills and fired on character issues,” she says. Character issues such as Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Good Citizenship. To produce good fruit trees (Technical Skills) it all starts with the seed (which is the Lifeskills ie character issues as mentioned above). And happy people produce happy trees and that leads to higher productivity in the workplace and harmony in the home.”
Tru-Cape who are responsible for marketing the fruit that growers like Kootjie Viljoen send for packing to Two-a-Day, says that they feel their responsibility for the livelihoods of 15, 200 people very acutely. Managing Director Roelf Pienaar explains: “The successful sale of fruit in 103 countries on the globe from our shareholders Two-a-Day, Ceres Fruit Growers along with independent growers directly impacts thousands of people and their families. This is one of the main reasons we come to work every day because we know what is at stake. Knowing that growers like the Viljoen’s also have the wellbeing of their people central to their operation, makes our business of selling to our local and international clients that much easier.”
