Paul Siguqa, owner of Klein Goederust, and Rodney Zimba, his winemaker outside the restored original barn doors of the tasting room. Photo: Patrick Heathcock
Making a dream become reality takes a lion’s share of determination, vision and pure hard work, whoever you are. When you’re the son of a farm labourer in South Africa, even daring to dream takes all that and more. At Klein Goederust, Paul Siguqa has both dared and achieved the first part of his dream, something that as a boy growing up on nearby Backsberg would have seemed out of sight – he’s the first black owner of a wine farm in the Franschhoek Valley.
Arriving at Klein Goederust, the beautifully restored historic buildings, manicured gardens, rose bushes and koi pond are exactly what you’d expect of a Franschhoek wine farm. The farm dates back to 1905 with no pretensions to grandeur, but an air of quiet self-sufficiency: a pizza-slice-shaped 10 hectares between road and railway line, next door to La Motte, that belonged to two families before Siguqa bought it to become a first-generation wine farm owner. The vines reveal more of the story. It’s early spring when we visit and a vibrant green cover crop of oats dwarfs young vines that are pruned back to the barest minimum, pencil thickness, just starting to bud and waiting for the season’s warmth to grow thick and strong.
“When I was searching for a piece of land, we couldn’t afford any farms available until we found this one, but it was badly dilapidated,” says Siguqa. “It was the local crime hotspot, it had no fencing, the vineyards had a disease. No one else wanted to buy it. It needed too much work, too much time, too much money. But we knew we couldn’t afford anything better, and that we would have to put in the time.”
Having bought the land in 2019, Siguqa took out all the old vines, did soil analysis, put in drainage and fencing, and got advice on the best varietals to plant in each block, then planted anew. What we see now is the result of three years of incredibly hard work and detailed planning, the start of a lifetime’s dream.
Let’s go back a few decades – where did this dream come from, and where did Siguqa get the motivation and determination that drove him to put everything he had into creating a thriving wine farm, from dilapidated land that none of his neighbours was prepared to take on?
“My mother, Nomaroma Siguqa, worked as a farm labourer, but she said that in her family she would be the last labourer. She was the motivator,” he says. “She decided that none of us would be farm workers because there’s a lot more to be achieved in the world.
“Social mobility is possible in South Africa, but that can only happen with education – that’s what my mother insisted on. When other kids would get the coolest toys, she would get us books.”
She herself had come to Backsberg from the Eastern Cape as a girl, starting as a labourer on the farm, and later on moving into the cellar.
“There she worked with an incredible man, Hardy Laubscher, the winemaker, and he taught her everything she needed to know about making MCC. For 37 years that’s all that she did.”
Hers was the expert palate they turned to on developing their first MCC, and her advice proved spot-on – the maiden vintage of Klein Goederust Nomaroma MCC sold out within six weeks. When we taste it later it’s beautiful, dry but smooth and creamy with a subtle elegance.
“Our MCC is named after her as a tribute to her and to all the other farmworkers, and women specifically, in the wine industry.”
Siguqa studied business at Stellenbosch University and went on to work for Media24, but soon this success story changed direction.
“As an adult, moving away to the city, I had this longing and yearning to come back to the Winelands, it’s home. Working for Media24, I was already saving to buy a farm one day. But it didn’t matter how hard I worked or how good the bonuses were (and it was a very good company to work for) I could not save enough on a salary. So I started my own business up in Joburg. For 15 years I saved to buy the farm.”
It took another three years to find land that he could afford, but he was determined that it should be in the Franschhoek Valley, despite the fact that at an average of R1-million per hectare it represents some of the most expensive agricultural land in the country.
“In a town like Franschhoek you’re not just competing with people with generational wealth, you’re also competing with overseas buyers, coming with pounds, dollars and snapping it up as a lifestyle.” And he was determined to do it all himself. Finding Klein Goederust, and gradually convincing the previous owners that he would be the right person to succeed them and respect the heritage of the farm, made that possible.
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