Playing ball without football

Inga was born 31 years ago in the Eastern Cape in the town, Elliot, that is now known as Khowa. There, he had a good upbringing and schooling, where he developed an immense love for the game of football. Not only did he adore the game, he was seriously good at it. However, Khowa is a rural town, and farming is a massive part of the environment. It intrigued Inga the same way football did. So after matric he enrolled at CPUT, studying the National Agricultural Diploma, followed by Btech Agriculture. And there he also played his beloved football, becoming captain of CPUT after one semester, winning a variety of leagues. In his third year he had to get an internship in what is known as Work Integrated Learning, where a student ends up on a farm, packhouse or one of the many elements forming the value chain of the production process.

He met with Lona Odendaal, who facilitates the Hortgro Intern/Mentorship Programme.The interview went well and afterwards he made a beeline for the possibility of an internship at Nooitgedacht, a pristine Dutoit Agri farm in the Koue Bokkeveld. “I wanted to do my internship there because it was one of the very best learning possibilities, but the area also had a very active football community,” Inga explains. However, before he could don his togs, he was informed by Nooitgedacht’s management that he will be promoted to production manager. “So walking to the football field that Sunday after this announcement, I was looking at all the other guys also on their way. I realised that I’d soon be their superior in the working field and there would be an awkwardness for them to have me as an equal on the football field. Sometimes relationships out of work can have a negative influence on your relationships in the workplace. Being their production manager they might feel I should be

their captain on the football pitch as well, but there might be another better captain amongst their own who will then lose out. That’s not fair.” It was a hard call for him to make, as football has been part of his life from a very young age. He lived for it. “It’s the one thing I’ve always known, I’ve always played football,” he says. What makes it even more intense is that his coach at CPUT urged him to go for trials in professional football. In his heart he knew he would make it to the professional level, but he decided against it. He chose to pursue a career in agriculture. Although he would have made a lot more money playing pro football, the issue is that it would have been a much shorter career. He was 19 at the time at CPUT, so let’s say a playing career of 10, maybe 12 years was possible (if he didn’t get seriously injured), and what then? Restarting his agri studies with a 12 year backlog?

“I still love football, love watching it, but my first love now is farming. If I apply myself, I can keep on scoring for a long, long time. My dream is to live and learn. A lot like in football, I want to be better than I was yesterday. Strategy, practise, new techniques. Farming is also a team sport.” It is clear that Inga sees life as a big football match. To be able to play well, you need talent, yes, but more importantly a good coach. So for him to do well in farming he needed good mentors. When he started his internship at

Nooitgedacht in 2015, Arno Marais was his first mentor that awakened the passion in him. To broaden Inga’s horizons he was postedto Excelsior, another Du Toit farm near Worcester. Three years later he was called back to Nooitgedacht and worked under the watchful eye of Johan Visser, the new estate manager who is still his mentor today. “Inga now manages 125 ha here as production manager and he progresses with leaps and bounds. He is an absolute team player, and although he is modest and comes across as an introvert, he really knows how to work with people,” Johan explains. “If you put 10 people from all walks of life, colour, creed and background in a room, and Inga joins them, it takes no time for him to get them chatting away like old friends. He can have a sensible conversation with anyone, you can send

him anywhere and the people will like him. He always has a good presence,” Johan concludes. Should you ask Inga if he, as a production manager, is now also mentoring the workers in his team he will just say “I am trying my best”. Modest? Never! “I am passing the information of what I’ve learnt on, and that will grow. I am just doing exactly what was done to me and try to improve where I feel I can.” Ten years ago, Inga made a decision to swop football for farming. Yet, in reality, the two have much in common. You need to be focused. You need to have strategy. You need to be hands-on, thinking a few steps ahead. It’s a team sport. And you need to score. Goal after goal after goal. The best of all is that with farming, you can play ball for a lot longer.