Partnerships put mohair farmer on winning track

Going from a part-time communal farmer to a full-time commercial producer is easier said than done. Eastern Cape farmer Sindile Lloyd James spoke to Glenneis Kriel about how he overcame the barriers to entry through his eagerness to learn, and by using strategic partnerships with government and other farmers.

- Glenneis Kriel

One day, after quitting his studies in 1997 and moving back home, Sindile Lloyd James asked his mother for money to buy a pair of shoes. Her response served as a wake-up call for James that life wasn’t going to be as easy as he thought. “She basically told me that I was old enough to fend for myself,” he recalls.

James pulled himself together and got a job at a shop in his home town of Pearston in the Eastern Cape, where he earned “a measly R70 [about R258] a week”. Fortunately, the shop owner spotted that he was a quick learner and good with people, so promoted him to a client services position after only a few months on the job.

But James wanted more out of life than a nine-to-five job. He had always loved reading, especially the Sunday newspapers, and in this way he learnt about becoming an entrepreneur.

His father owned a fencing business, so the two started tendering together for fencing jobs. Eventually, after gaining some experience James began securing his own jobs and, in 2007, while erecting a 150km fence at the Ibamba Private Game Reserve in Jansenville, he struck up a friendship with the reserve’s neighbouring farmer, Philip Gxotiwe. When asked if he was interested in farming, James admitted to Gxotiwe that he had always dreamt of having his own farm. On communal land in Pearston, his parents used to keep goats and pigs, which they slaughtered and sold to the community.

“It was highly lucrative, yet hard work, as my mother had to walk almost 11km to sell the meat. She did this for a few years until we finally had enough money to buy our first car, a white Nissan Pulsar. She’s one of my biggest inspirations, a great example of what you can achieve if you work hard and give of your best,” he says.