A FARMING LEGEND AT 31!
On his arrival in Alexandria in the Eastern Cape in August 2007, Tshilidzi Matshidzula was only 19 and on a rescue mission. He had been recruited by well-known commercial dairy farmer Walter Biggs of Oakleaf Business Trust in Alexandria as a trainee manager to try to save yet another failing land-reform project – the small dairy farm Little Barnet, owned by 17 black beneficiaries.
Affectionally known as Chilli, the youngster was thrown in at the deep end, being expected to manage the project from the get-go. Walter was part of Amadlelo Agri, a private initiative by some of the country’s leading commercial dairy farmers with the aim of driving empowerment and transformation projects in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. “Walter had committed himself to helping the beneficiaries turn around their loss-making farm,” Chilli recalls.
Chilli arrived on the 532ha property to find only a straggly herd of mixed-breed beef cattle and an old,
