Senwes Scenario August/September 2018 | Page 38

PRODUCER FOCUS Simon Tefo A Good Story to Tell Farmer Simon Tefo bid farewell to civil engineering in 2012 and has not looked back since. Senwes’ relationship with farmer Simon Tefo spans over a period of five years. The quali- fied civil engineer gave up his office job for the open field in 2012, when he finally made the decision to pursue his passion and venture into full-time commercial farming. A decision he had been contemplating since 2009.  By Kefiloe Manthata Senwes Communication Graduate S ince then, Simon has had to weather many storms along his journey, but out of that came an inspiring story of triumph over trial and the rewards of persistence. Over five years his partnership with Senwes has helped him to break new ground and expand his farming business far beyond his expectations. Walking around his farm, on the out- skirts of Randfontein in Gauteng, felt a little like walking through a museum, down memory lane. On one side of the yard, lies many of his old, broken down farming equipment. Tefo shares many anecdotes about how one or other of these had failed him at the most inconvenient times over the years. Through the financial help he received from Senwes, Tefo has acquired better, more advanced equipment and has thus become much more precise and efficient with his farming. Tefo beamed 36 SENWES SCENARIO | SPRING 2018 with pride as he guided Scenario to what he refers to as his “best buy to date”, a horse and trailer truck that he bought after his last successful harvest. “This one is my baby!” he says of the big machine. “This is one purchase that has made my life so much easier. Whe