EXPRESS READ: DENZEL THE DISRUPTER

Denzel Swarts, a farmworker’s son who dared to dream bigger. ‘I am proof that change is possible,’ he says. ‘My purpose is to be a beacon of hope to my people who are still afraid to speak up or have dreams’ | Photo: Nicky Elliott

Denzel (40) grew up on Simonsig Wine Estate in South Africa’s Stellenbosch, the younger son of a farm labourer and domestic worker. Today he’s a sales and brand executive at Zoetendal Vineyards and lives in Mitchells Plain with his hairstylist wife Nadae and their two children. 

I HAD A VERY JOYOUS CHILDHOOD growing up on the Simonsig vineyards, with a lot of freedom to be a child, run all over the land and connect to the soil. At 13, I started doing holiday jobs on the farm and later worked in the wine tasting facility, where I swept leaves and cleaned wineglasses and toilets.

When I was a teenager my parents divorced, so life wasn’t as easy. But more challenging for me was seeing no people of colour in senior positions on the farm. I’d always heard my community discuss this situation with fear in their voices. Were they self-limiting or was there a glass ceiling, I wondered.

At 18, I applied for a wine advisor job. I was turned down but then saw white students hired after me. This felt really unfair and, the longer I thought about it, the less I could accept it.  Eventually, I reached breaking point and simply had to challenge the situation.

Today a dad to Diego and Deezaan, Denzel remembers reaching breaking point as a teenager when he realised his skin colour might be affecting his job prospects | Photo: Nicky Elliott

Maureen, the manager at the time, discouraged me, but I set up an appointment with the MD, Pieter Malan. I was very nervous. This was one of the most daring things I’d ever done! I believe there’s a God out there, so I prayed hard before the meeting for a good outcome.

Pieter listened to my logic, which included the facts that they already knew my character and my academics weren’t bad. I’d discovered a policy that children of farm workers were meant to have first rights for jobs on the farm, though which jobs wasn’t specified. ‘Denzel,’ he said calmly, ‘I’m going to give you the opportunity to work as a wine advisor. You can start Monday.’

My parents, who’d been very fearful about the meeting, were very proud and, I think, very nervous for me. I, too, was nervous that I’d be a disappointment in the job, but I got amazing support from the other wine advisors, most of whom were students.

Denzel’s mother, Serena, who was a domestic worker in the home of the owners of Simonsig wine farm, was ‘very fearful’ about her son challenging for a wine advisor job that no person of colour had occupied before on the farm

I was the only advisor of colour and had to learn about wine in a completely different way, from technical analysis to food pairings. When the other advisors saw it was hard for me, they helped. I started feeling that I was an equal, not just the Denzel who cleans toilets. After the first season, Maureen did one of the noblest things: she apologised to me and said I’d been one of her best workers that season. She went on to become a wonderful mentor to me.

Pieter had told me to cultivate expertise around wine, so I started training myself. I completed many courses and, when Maureen retired in 2015, I was given her job and became the first senior manager of colour at Simonsig.

It was a big change for people from my community to see somebody who looked and spoke like them in a senior position. The diverse team I built as manager enabled customers to be served in their own language, and the tasting room received many accolades.

Eventually, I was accepted for a post-graduate diploma in management practice at UCT’s Graduate School of Business. I loved the diploma. It was very challenging but greatly rewarding. I even ended up as student chairperson of the commerce faculty. ‘I think,’ I said to Nadae, ‘God is showing me that I might be a leader.’

My family was proud to have their first graduate, and the diploma opened the world to me. I remain grateful for the Malan family’s contribution to my wine journey and we’re still in touch.

Today I’m a sales and brand executive at Zoetendal Vineyards. Our vision is to grow to be one of the top-10 premium wine producers in South Africa. I champion diversity at the company, travel internationally, and am grateful to work for extraordinary owners who let me dream big.

In 2016, I founded the Son of the Soil Leadership Foundation to mentor school children from farm backgrounds on a three-year programme. We’ve mentored 35 so far. When people ask me if I’ve achieved success, I say not completely, but the success of which I’m very proud is that some young people I’ve mentored are now in better positions than me and have a louder voice than me.

Denzel started Son of the Soil, a leadership foundation to give teenagers from backgrounds like his ‘a chance in life,’ he says. ‘What I’m very proud of is that some young people I’ve mentored are now in better positions than me and have a louder voice than me’ | Photo by SM Photography

Nonetheless, I find transformation in the wine industry very slow. People remain silent on sensitive issues rather than face them. So I can find myself questioning why I work in the industry. But it’s not just a career for me, it’s a calling to change the narrative.

Despite the despondency I sometimes feel, my faith in God has grown. I’m grateful for so much. Sometimes I switch off everything in my vehicle and talk out loud to Him. I tell my children Jesus is alive and around and it’s important to treat people respectfully. For me, life is about your relationship with other human beings.

extraordinary

I was raised among the tired but dignified faces of people who laboured quietly but with extraordinary strength. My people’s resilience has become the cornerstone of my purpose to speak out their unspoken words in the vineyards, to be a beacon of hope for those who are still afraid to speak up or have dreams.

I am proof that dreams can be realised, that new opportunities can exist for the children of farm workers. I believe that, as you move up, you must pull others up with you, and that transformation in the wine industry is not only possible but necessary.

I dedicate this interview to my family and the many farmworkers whose shoulders I grew up on and all those whom I have met in my life who have shown me the real meaning of Ubuntu, by which I mean that we are all interconnected and that I am a person because of them ♦