Hetta Strauss

Hetta Strauss

Hetta Strauss (nee Visagie) grew up in Upington, the eldest daughter of Jan Visagie (Oom Jan), the Agriculture teacher and hostel superindendent of the boys hostel of Upington Hoërskool and so the “father” of all the young farmers of that area.  

After matriculating in 1968 she obtained her BHuish.  (Home Economics) degree at Stellenbosch University.  She started her teaching career at her old Alma Mater in 1973. She married WP Strauss in 1974 after which she moved to Cape Town and accepted a teaching position at Bosmansdam High School in Milnerton, where she was affectionally dubbed by the pupils as “Sister Sunshine”.  Soon after, the couple returned to Upington where WP took up the position as charter pilot for Walker Air Services.

After a series of events , they moved to the Strauss family farm, Boksputs  and started  farming. Their first child was born in 1977. The nearest school was 40 km from the farmstead, so when the children had to go to school she decided to apply for a teaching position nearby so as to keep the children at home.

She commuted 80 km a day until both her sons matriculated.

When they retired from farming  and teaching in 1998, they moved to their holiday home in Kleinmond while their youngest son continued the farming business.

Being the very active and buoyant personality that she is, after retirement, she needed something to occupy herself with.  She started renting out private homes as holiday accommodation. The business soon started to grow and due to legal and technical difficulties the business had to be registered.

This is when Jannie Fourie came to the rescue and she became part of Agrisell in Kleinmond, which is a start-up, but continuing to show strong growth.