The story of Zandile Nzimande

Ms Zandile Nzimande grew up on the Hauff’s dairy farm near Donnybrook where her family have lived and worked since the early 70s. After doing a few holiday jobs on the farm she too was inspired to pursue a career in agriculture and enrolled to do her farm management diploma at a local TVET college. After completing the theoretical component of the course she applied to complete her in-service training through HGA and undertook this on the Hauff’s farm. Zandile excelled on the farm and particularly when involved in the management of the calves. After completing her training, plans were afoot for her to do an internship abroad through the Future Farmers Foundation but unfortunately the timing could not have been worse as international travel was stymied as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not to be discouraged she obtained further work experience on a neighbouring commercial farm where she was also involved in calf rearing and then subsequently returned to the Hauff’s farm where she is working alongside fellow HGA intern Walter Khumalo, on a beef calf rearing project.

As successful as Zandile has been in her agricultural career thus far the absurd thing is that she has not yet obtained her qualification despite the incredible work experience under her belt. This is because she has not been issued a certificate she should have received after completing her last theory module in July 2019 and she cannot submit her diploma application without this certificate. We have been in communication with both the college and the Department of Higher Education and hope to have this situation resolved soon but we wonder how many other students have been unable to graduate due to an administrative issue beyond their control.