Tree Farmers of the Year – 2024

Congratulations to Khethezakhe N. Zulu and André de Waal for being named NCT’s 2024 Tree Farmer of the Year winners in the Small Grower and Commercial Grower categories, respectively. Our deserving winners each received a chainsaw, generously sponsored by PMB Power Products and Stihl Pietermaritzburg. This prestigious award, first presented in 2001, recognises farmers who have significantly cultivated and improved their operations.

Khethezakhe N Zulu and André de Waal have been honored with the prestigious Tree Farmer of the Year awards in the Small Grower and Commercial Grower categories, respectively. This award recognises their exceptional silvicultural practices, environmental management, and operational enhancements.

Small-scale Tree Farmer of the Year 2024 – Khethezakhe N Zulu

Khethezakhe obtained his matric at Nokhalela High School in the Ngudwini area, where he was born. He completed his schooling in 1990 and then moved to Durban to seek employment. There, he secured a temporary job at a supermarket.

In 1993, Khethezakhe began teaching at Ngudwini Primary School while enrolled at Unisa to pursue a formal teaching qualification. However, he never completed his qualification due to financial and time constraints. At the time he dropped out, he was juggling studying, teaching, and part-time forestry work. He ultimately decided to leave both teaching and studying to commit fully to the timber industry, a field he was passionate about and one in which he could work for himself.

His journey in farming began in 1993, when he started planting sugar cane in the Eshowe area with assistance from the sugar industry, a programme facilitated by his brother, who worked in the sugar industry. The land he farmed was inherited from his father and located near their home. During this time, he also informally assisted with harvesting timber plots for small growers in his area. In 1998, he transitioned from sugar cane to timber, planting approximately 9.59ha of gum trees.

In the same year, Khethezakhe founded a transport company specialising in transporting timber for local growers. He started with three long-haul trucks and became a full member of NCT in 2000, establishing himself as a recognised transporter. Timber farming brought him significant achievements: he married in 2000, had two children, bought five vehicles and three trucks, and purchased a largehouse for his family in 2005. He also  refurbished his childhood home.

Through his timber business, Khethezakhe has been able to send his son to university, who is now a Chartered Accountant working in Cape Town. He started his timber business with two chainsaws and eight employees and currently has four chainsaws and a permanent staff of 12, all from the local community. They handle harvesting, debarking, and loading. He provides comprehensive services to small growers in Eshowe, including harvesting, short haul, and long haul to the mill.

In addition to his business ventures, Khethezakhe serves as a pastor in his church in Eshowe. He takes pride in conducting ethical business with his clients and enjoys helping his community.

Commercial Tree Farmer of the Year for 2024 – Delft Farming (Pty) Ltd

Every year NCT recognises the efforts of their members by awarding the Commercial Tree Farmer of the Year award to a member who fulfils the following criteria:

• Environmental management, including monitoring of TOPS species.
• Good silvicultural and harvesting practices, including roads and fire protection.
• Social responsibilities
• Other land management with regards to non timber products.

The finalist for 2024 proved that they were all worthy nominees with well-run operations showing passion for their farms and the future in forestry.

The winning member for 2024 is Delft Forestry (Pty) Ltd, a family-owned and well-run business in the Piet Retief area. Tito and Desire Vorster along with their daughter Monique and her husband Andre De Waal run a well-oiled and maintained business comprising two farms known as Delft and Lodewykslust Estate.

The farms total 4 500ha in size with 2 400ha planted to Eucalyptus grandis, dunnii, smithii and grandis x nitens clones (600ha at Lodewykslust Estate) and 1 800ha to Acacia mearnsii.

Numerous attempts have been made at establishing Eucalyptus species at Delft to no avail, Black Wattle is the only species that will grow at Delft, which Andre notes is assisting with fire management due to the distance between the farms and the time taken for more crews and equipment to arrive in the event of fire.

In addition to the timber at Lodewykslust Estate there is an essential-oils plant where 200ha has been planted to Tea Tree, Eucalyptus radiatation and E. smithii for oil Production as well as 150ha of arable land under pivot.

The arable land under pivot was the saving grace for Lodewykslust Estate after the entire farm burnt down shortly after being purchased and became the sole income for the farm survival. Today, Lodewykslust is a productive well managed farm. If you didn’t know of the farm’s history, you wouldn’t believe that the entire farm was burnt when driving around.

Although forestry is the primary activity for Delft Forestry, the introduction of essential oils and the Simbra herd in recent years have added value to the operation, so much so that 37 permanent staff positions were created for the essential-oil business alone.

The essential oils are part of the Fair for Life certification programme for organic growers,which promotes fair trade for producers and workers who are at a socio-economic disadvantage to access a wider range of social and economic benefits – such as preferential pricing for the oil. A portion of the sales’ price is retained by the certification organisation, which is then paid out for social projects that are decided on by a committee made of up of staff and community members who have been voted into this position by the community.

Apart from the permanent staff positions on Lodewykslust Estate, the community is also benefitting from the essential oils.

Forestry activities take the environment into consideration during the entire rotation starting from cool burns in preparation for planting. This is achieved by the removal of all the heavy fuels that are used for fueling the kettle for the distilling process, as well as firewood for the community.

The pitting and planting operations create seasonal employment and allows Delft Forestry to capitalise on the growing season to replant all the temporarily unplanted areas as quickly as possible, so the growth season is maximised and the seedlings are well established to handle the Piet Retief winters.

Having the essential oil certified as organic the use of pesticides is kept to a minimum thus resulting in manual hoeing and slashing to control the weeds in the compartments. Areas with heavy fuel loads are disked before winter ensuring air flow through the compartment and assisting with fire protection. Coppice compartments that are replanted are de-stumped to remove the stumps thereby assisting with access for disking and fire suppression.

Substantial work has been done on removing invasive Alien Species (IAS) from the open areas around the farms, use of the Working on Fire crews trained in the removal of IAS has been beneficial, resulting in these areas now being in a maintenance phase.

These areas have been rehabilitated to grassland used for the cattle’s grazing. Andre is of the firm opinion that the cattle grazing has assisted with the erosion by breaking down the sides of the dongas allowing the grass to re establish in these areas.

Situated in the Piet Retief area, the occurrence of wildfires is a serious risk, so a lot of planning goes into the fire-protection on the farms. Wattle is planted around all the open areas to act as a natural break, thereafter the Eucalyptus compartments are planted.

A quick response to fires is critical so the roads’ network is well maintained, where necessary roads are gravelled and the farm’s tractor loader backhoe is kept busy opening drains and repairing areas damaged by rains. Stream crossings are constructed with old concrete railway sleepers, which has assisted in reducing maintenance costs for the farm vehicles as they no longer drive continually through water.

Nothing goes to waste at Delft. The leaf material that has been distilled is converted into compost used for the essential oil plants. Delft Forestry excels with their social responsibility and has invested time and resources to assist the communities not only bordering the farms but Piet Retief as well.

All staff members are trained through a local service provider in Piet Retief ensuring that all staff are equipped with the right knowledge to fulfil their responsibilities on the farm. Local schools in Moolman and Delft have been assisted with the building of classrooms, where the Maranatha school was assisted with solar and an online real-time internet facility.

Delft contributes to a feeding scheme with the local church that feeds 120 people every Sunday and have purchased a new bakkie for the scheme to ensure they continue with much needed assistance.

Access to potable water is a need in all communities and Delft have assisted with the drilling of numerous boreholes and tanks within the neighbouring communities which have been gratefully accepted.

Source: NCT Forest (Pages 3 – 9)

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