Farmworker's son realises his farming dream

In 2019, Paul Siguqa became one of the first black owners of a wine farm in the Franschhoek Valley and established himself as a producer of premium wine. He talked to Glenneis Kriel about his journey to success.

These days, it is almost unthinkable that any new farmer will have the financial means to buy a farm in the Franschhoek Valley of the Western Cape, as farms here go for from R1 million to more than R2,5 million per hectare, according to transactions in the past 12 months.

Paul Siguqa, however, did just that when he bought Klein Goederust for R12 million with money he saved over 15 years while working in the print media. And to make his story even more extraordinary, Siguqa is the child of a farmworker.

He grew up at Backsberg Wine Estate in Simonsberg, where his mother, Nomaroma, initially worked in the vineyards, and later in the wine cellar where Hardy Laubscher taught her to make Méthode Cap Classique (MCC) sparkling wine, something she did for 37 years.

Yet, having a farmer in the family was never part of Nomaroma’s vision for her children. “My mom vowed she would be the last of her family to work on a farm. She realised the only way to escape her fate would be through education, so even though she could not read, she always scavenged for books, magazines and newspapers. Where other children got toys for gifts, we got books,” Siguqa says.

Translating books into Xhosa as he read, so his mom could also understand, became one of his favourite pastimes, and he believes it also greatly improved his comprehension skills.

His mother also taught him to work hard to achieve his dreams. Siguqa worked in the Backsberg cellar during school holidays and on weekends, and sold fruit as a street hawker to buy his first car and later help pay for his media studies.

A DREAM IS BORN