Meet the people

Brumilde & Mariette Joubert

Joubert & Seuns Padstal

“My father-in-law bought land here in 1966,” Mariette Joubert says. Her daughter, Brumilde, comes to sit beside her at this farm stall on the N4. “It was pristine here and the road was still narrow.”

Joubert & Seuns is a well-known citrus producer in the Lowveld. They also manufacture solid-wood furniture and do excavation work. “My father-in-law did everything,” Mariette says. There was even a butchery on the farm – Belladonna Butchery in Nelspruit still uses his wors recipe.”

Mariette’s mother-in-law ran four farm stalls in the Kloof. Initially fruit trees were planted to supply them. “My mother-in-law made dried fruit rolls and the children would have to stand and shoo away the flies. On Christmas Day they would be harvesting watermelon while other families were sitting down to Christmas lunch.”

There is still a sense of community in the Kloof, but Mariette says it’s not the same as it was in the old days. “There was a farm school on the Sterkspruit road. My father-in-law coached the athletics team in front of the shop and over weekends he screened movies for the whole community. Today everyone just minds their own business. I mostly socialise with my family and children.”

Farming in these parts is not easy. The area is in fact not ideal