Gustav Thiel
AS the new academic year started this week at the University of Stellenbosch, two young black men arrived from the sugarfields of KwaZulu-Natal ready to be trained as wine-makers.
Mzokhona Mwemwe (21) and Dumisani Zulu (20), both from Umlazi, were accepted into the university’s diploma course in wine-making, but have been unable to start the course because they have no money for tuition and expenses.
The two students said this week that while they both aspire to one day make quality wines, they had a more immediate goal in mind: to see the traditionally white industry become more representative. At least temporarily thwarted in both respects, they lashed out at “the complete unwillingness of the industry to accommodate them”.
The two students had come to Stellenbosch at the urging of Jabulane Ntshangase, the so-called “wine ambassador” of Spier wine estates and a vocal supporter of black empowerment in the wine industry.
Ntshangase recently intitiated a bursary scheme for disadvantaged South Africans, in conjunction with wine journalist John Platter and South African Airways, on whose wine selection panel he serves. The scheme provides bursaries for three disadvantaged students to study wine-making at Stellenbosch.
Mwemwe and Zulu had seen Ntshangase on television, and telephoned him about the bursary scheme. Although three students had been selected for the scheme for the current academic year, Ntshangase told the two to come anyway, and that he would find a way to accommodate them.
So far frustrated in his attempts to find help for the students, Ntshangase told the Mail & Guardian: “KWV is a racist institution where the top management have no desire to develop the industry.”
Mwemwe and Zulu also accused the giant wine co-operative of trying to sabotage the efforts of aspiring black wine-makers by not offering them financial help.
KWV human resources manager Theo Pegel and spokesman Arnold Kirby in turn accused Ntshangase of failing to act in the best interests of the industry.
“It is a little-known fact that we initiated bursary schemes for coloured people as far back as 1976, but we didn’t make this commonly known because we did not want to blow our own horns,” said Kirby.
According to Kirby, KWV grants bursaries every year to 10 students studying various aspects of the wine industry.
Ntshangase pointed out in response that whatever efforts KWV has made, they have been insufficient.
“We still only have one qualified black wine-maker in the country and Mwemwe and Zulu still have no money to study,” he said. The country’s only black wine-maker is Carmen Stevens, who is employed by Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery.
The accusations and counter-accusations come amid KWV’s attempts to convert into a company, and distribute its assets, valued at anywhere between R2-billion to R5-billion, to its 4 751 members, all of whom are white.
These assets were built up with the aid of special tax breaks granted to the co-operative under apartheid and through the Wine and Spirit Control Act.
Ntshangase has said that the plan is proof of KWV’s intentions of “perpetuating racism and maintaining the white status quo of the industry.”
Land Affairs Minister Derek Hanekom took KWV to court over its plans to convert to a company, and won a temporary delay until March 25, while a commission analyses the pros and cons of the plan.