The Sunday Mail
Wellington Zimbowa
Armed with only an Ordinary Level certificate, being a gardener was the first job for 33-year-old Tongai Joseph Dhafana when he crossed the Limpopo to visit his Cape Town-based relatives in 2009.
Today, what started as a stop-gap has ushered him into a sea of opportunities.
Tongai Joseph Dhafana
“After being a gardener for almost 10 months I wanted to work a little longer as I was now adapting to South Africa’s weather, culture, etc. I then knocked at Bar Bat Black Sheep restaurant’s door looking for work,” he explains.
The owner – a “noble man, very humble and kind lad” – called Mynhadt Johannes Thobias Joubert made him the restaurant gardener.
Like the proverbial Zim Diasporan revered world-wide for hard work, diligence and dynamism, Dhafana became an instant star.He was promoted to the kitchen, washing dishes.
But the man would not let go his previous gardening jobs in the neighbourhood. He needed to compliment his restaurant earnings.
“I then worked for another four months but I never threw away my two first jobs. I only reduced the days so that I could make everyone happy.”
South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup marked a big turning point.
“In January 2010, Mynhadt wanted to beef up his team as we were hosting the World Cup. He then promoted me to be a barman, in which post I served for just few months before landing a waitering post.”
In March 2010, Dhafana who is a Christian, was to have his first ever taste of wine when his impressed boss gave him a glass on his birthday. It must have been the nectar of the gods, because it worked its magic on the young man.
“Looking in the glass with the fizzy wine my mind drifted into the vineyards. I wondered how one can convert grape to such a wonderful liquid, asking myself questions with no answer I could find. The wine bug followed me since that day even as I tried to ignore it.”
Dhafana dropped all his gardening jobs to enroll for a certificate in Wine Studies with the prestigious Cape Wine Academy, and then subsequently acquiring other international certifications.
As he climbs up the ladder in South Africa’s vibrant wine industry, Dhafana is now studying for a Wine Diploma and is now head sommelier at the internationally acclaimed dining resort La Colombe.
A sommelier is a wine expert mostly employed by up-market restaurants and hotels for his or her broad and up to date knowledge about wine and how best to serve it.
This year, the Chirumanzu-born wine guru decided to test his taste and prove his mettle in the industry he has fallen in love with.
Dhafana entered the South Aftican Wine Tasting Championships to “put my palate on test against the best tasters of the country”.
He made it into the top five in a highly contested event that featured tried-and-tested wine-tasters, together with a fellow Zimbabwean, Tawanda Marume.
The competition which is meant to encourage “new converts into the closed circle that is the wine world”, is open to those who love wine, sommeliers, winemakers and amateurs.
Among other things, competitors were expected to blind-taste wine and correctly identify 12 wines from eight different countries and identify the cultivar, vintage and name of producer.
Dhafana has worked with celebrated names in the South African wine industry like Chris Mullineux and Eben Sadie.
He has been a judge at the prestigious Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge, where popular South African wine brands such as KWV, Perdeberg, Simonsig, Spier and Stellenrust participate. With the road ahead still long though getting brighter, Dhafana looks back at the road already travelled.
“There is no goal which is too high. I faced some few challenges as I never sipped a glass of wine back home. All the courses needed money and I wasn’t earning enough for my studies, for food and to send back home. Honestly, if I look back where I came from and where I am going now, I realise it’s not about the destination but about the journey.”
