Bertie van Zyl was born on 16 November 1932, the second surviving son of Flip and Lenie van Zyl on the farm Boekenhoutbult in the Mooketsi valley of the Limpopo Province.
Bertie left school at the age of 16 to take over the farming responsibilities from his father who suffered from ill health. When Bertie came to the farm in 1949 his father had a mixed crop but focussed mainly on potatoes – life was hard and the family barely survived. Enterprising by nature, Bertie soon realised that his neighbour made more money planting tomatoes than potatoes. The climate in the fertile Mooketsi valley made it possible to plant year-round tomato crops. Although convincing his father of the viability of tomatoes was not easy, his first successful tomato crop was harvested in 1953.
Tenacity, an eye for a business opportunity, a knack for communicating with labourers in their own language and an unwavering self-belief stood Bertie in good stead over the years. At the time of his death in 2005, he had built up ZZ2 to a multi-million Rand farming conglomerate and had made his mark in public life – both in the agricultural sector and on provincial and national level.
Thousands attended his funeral, amongst them the Minister of Agriculture, Ms Thoko Didiza. In a tribute to Bertie van Zyl, the Premier of the Limpopo Province said: “He leaves a void too difficult to fill in the farming industry and agricultural sector as a whole. His passing away has left us poorer as a country and a Province.”
Bertie van Zyl was married to Lettie Dreyer and four children were born from the marriage: Sons Philé and Tommie and daughters Irma and Amri.
Origin and founder
