The month of November was busy, but full of fun and highlights. The Xhosa leaders walked away from the informative Leaders Day with a lot of confidence and pride. The Sports and Culture Day created lots of fun and positive competition and a lovely gardening excursion took place. The cherry on the cake is of course the results of the Western Cape Prestige Agriworker Awards! Read more below.
We greet you for 2025 and wish you a blessed festive season.
Much love, the KBOS team.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WITZENBERG REGION!
At the Western Cape Prestige Agriworker Awards on 1 November, Witzenberg was named the Best Performing Region in the province. This recognition reflects the years of purposeful investment in our people through sustainable training and development that strengthens skills in agriculture and personal growth.
Many thanks to every person, trainer and employer who contributes to this outstanding performance.
A special congratulations to our winners:
Anastacia Visagie – 2nd place, Best Potential (Langrivier Farm)
Congratulations and well done to everyone! You make our region proud.
Kerneels Oncker - Rietfontein. Winner in Irrigation Specialist.
Anwill Moletsane - De Hoop. 2nd place in Junior Management.
Carmanita Snyders - Verdun Estates. 2nd place in Middle Management.
Anastacia Visagie - Langrivier. 2nd place in Best Potential.
SPORTS AND CULTURE DAY
We experienced a day full of energy and team spirit, with keen netball, rugby and soccer players who gave their all. Even the tug of war and bouncy castle were big attractions. A real day of pure enjoyment for young and old.
A big thank you to all our GOBs who presented this first project with such dedication and professionalism. It is special for us to see your remarkable growth as leaders. You can be really proud!
Congratulations to the following winning teams:
Rugby
1st place – Sterkwater
2nd place – Schoonvlei
3rd place – Vastrap
Netball
1st place – Tandfontein
2nd place – Bronaar
3rd place – Verdun
Soccer
1st place – Koelfontein
2nd place – Bronaar
3rd place – De Straadt
Tug of war
Sterkwater
A special word of thanks
To all our sponsors and donors: We cannot thank you enough for your contributions. Your support made this day a huge success.
Goosen Farming
Bronaar
Welgemeen
Alhambra
De Kock Farm
JOY ARTICLE - YOUNG FARMER PROGRAM
What a privilege to talk again after 15 years with the student who was part of the KBOS Young Farmer program in 2011/12. What do students still remember after 15 years? Has the program helped in any way to address the shortage of good managers in our region? The answers are informative.
Current position
Number from class
General manager/owner
2
Senior position - not moved
3
Senior position – moved elsewhere*
6
Senior position – moved to Witzenberg
9
From agriculture
3
Deceased
3
26
*Grabouw, Barrydale, Wellington, Piketberg
Everyone had only positive things to say about the role of the program in their development. Summarized in order:
The mix of practical agricultural information and management skills was exactly what they needed at that age. “The hardest part is learning to work with people” / “Work is a challenge”. The technical sessions were also extremely applicable due to the high quality presenters and practical content.
The sleep in the kompong sticks with everyone. They use words like needed, good and an “eye opener.” One manager tells how seriously he looks at the conditions at the accommodation because he realized that night “this is people’s life”. (By the way, the Donkerbos supervisors who were the hosts still talk a lot about it).
The managers who are now in other regions long for the type of training that is available in the Witzenberg for themselves but also their teams.
If those who have passed away are not taken into account, we have a 60% pass rate for the Witzenberg. Almost 30% were able to progress faster in other regions. This proves previous research that claimed, “Ceres is a net importer of unskilled labour and a net exporter of skilled labour.” Something to debate.
Young farmer program 2011/12.
Young farmer program 2025/26. Let's see where these leaders are in 2040.
GARDENING TRIP
Our 2023 and 2024 Gardening Winners had a trip to Creative Hub and Ikamvaleto tunnels. There they learned a lot and certainly got enough tips to take home with them. See more information under how to enter the 2025 Gardening Competition!
GARDENING COMPETITION
It's time again for our annual gardening competition! Don't be shy, we know your flower garden and vegetable garden deserve to be seen! Enter today, because this year you could be the winner!
Our judges will also share valuable gardening tips to make your plants bloom even more beautifully and your harvest to grow like never before. Click on the link for the entry form.
XHOSA LEADERS DAY
Leadership Workshop makes huge impact on worker leaders.
A recently held Leadership for Life workshop held on 3 November 2025, facilitated by Lennox Plaatjies, made a huge impact on the 84 attendees. It formed part of our annual Xhosa & Sotho Leaders Day. The programme focused on teaching self-leadership principles, discovering your potential, overcoming poverty mindsets, applying leadership thinking and developing the heart and character of a good leader.
The attendees, who were mainly agricultural work team leaders, were actively engaged throughout the programme with leadership activities, group discussions and interactive teaching. The group responded very positively to the programme and demonstrated eagerness to apply the newly acquired leadership lessons to impact their owns lives, their families, their work teams and their communities.
How can you apply what you have learned at work?
The students gave the following feedback:
Being a good leader and communicating well with their team mates as well as applying the leadership techniques will make the business a success.
It's important to be open-minded at work and make changes where they can see something isn't working.
Being positive also contributes to the success of the team.
The knowledge of the leader day will be able to be applied at home and at work and by using these qualities they can manage the work and make it a success.
What they have learned they can use to find solutions to daily challenges.
When they exercise leadership qualities, they can be proud of themselves and this is the best way to be able to move forward.
MARKETING VISITS
We will be VISITING again soon! Feel free to keep an eye on your e-mails and diaries open for an appointment from Carmen or Marnel. We realize that this is a very busy time, but it is also the best time for us to come and talk to you about what new inputs are in our 2026 Training Year Programme.
NEWS SNIPPETS:
Trading hours: Please take notice that the Center will be closed from Monday 22 December 2025 and reopen on 2 January 2026.
GOB annual planner: Plan nice and early for 2026. Click on the links to download the GOB annual planner:
