What began in tears ended in triumph for Jantjies, who works as a childminder on the Endulini Fruit citrus farm. At the start of the competition, recently held in the Boland, she felt disheartened when she realised none of her family or friends could attend.

Hearing the loud cheers for the first contestant, she was overwhelmed with sadness that there was no one in the audience to support her.

“But I dried my eyes and went on stage,” she told Farmer’s Weekly. “To my surprise, the crowd welcomed me with just as much support as the others. That encouragement carried me through the rest of the competition.”

Back home, she was met with a hero’s welcome. “Everyone congratulated me and thanked me for putting Patensie on the map. I have become an overnight inspiration for my people, showing that dreams can be realised,” she explained.

A lifelong love of music

Ironically, Jantjies almost didn’t enter. She had always loved singing, a passion nurtured by her guitar-playing grandparents, Andries and Christine, and she had been one of the lead singers in their church since the age of about 10.

“My singing career probably started after church one day, when I took the mic and sang along to one of the songs. The preacher walked by and gave me a strange look, and the next week I was invited to sing in the front,” she recalled, with a laugh.

Despite her early start, Jantjies doubted her chances. It was only thanks to the persistence of her friend, Rozaan Weeland, that she auditioned.

She urged others with a love for music to take the leap: “Whether you win or not, the competition changes you. It gives you confidence, life skills, and the courage to dream bigger. I left feeling empowered and ready to give more to my community.”

While the scores were close, Jantjies’s sincerity and vocal strength shone through. “I didn’t expect to win, but I’m fired up to keep developing my talent. After many disappointments since matriculating, this feels like the start of a new season in my life,” she added.

Her journey echoes the essence of Agri’s Got Talent: uncovering voices from the farming community that might otherwise go unheard and showing how music can uplift, inspire, and bring rural stories onto a national stage.

Clayton Mentoor, a seasonal worker in the pome fruit industry at Kromco near Grabouw, Western Cape, earned a well-deserved second place. His musical heritage runs deep, as his mother, Claudine Fielander, was among the top 10 in the competition’s 2016 instalment.

Third place went to Mervin Williams of DGB near Wellington, while Sandeline Mouers of Boplaas 1743, Simondium, received the special award for Best Singer in an Indigenous Language, sponsored by the Afrikaans Language Council, with her moving rendition of ‘Vergeet my nie’.

A close competition

Thea van Zyl, project manager for Agri’s Got Talent, said this year’s competition was tight, with the finalists separated by only a few points.

What impressed her most was the camaraderie between contestants. “These people fully supported one another to become the best they could be during the training and competition. Their sense of community was next level, with many saying during the interviews that they were participating for their communities, mostly as an inspiration,” she explained.

The competition was sponsored by Hortgro, the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa, the South African Table Grape Industry, South Africa Wine, and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, with additional support from FruitFly Africa and Culdevco.