WINDHOEK – Retirement does not mean one should just sit on one’s laurels at home and endlessly spend time admiring the spectacular sunrises and sunsets in retirement bliss on a swinging garden chair.

This is attested to by the industriousness being shown by former show designer, 70-year-old Cornelius Kaizeri Stanley who has retired to goat, cattle and sheep farming. When Stanley retired from the lucrative footwear business making shoes for Italian citizens in the capital in the 80’s he ventured into livestock farming that has turned out to be a profitable venture as well.

With his experience of meat processing for Damara Meat Packers, an extended operation of Meatco in the olden days, he one day saw the business opportunity presented by running a backyard butchery in Windhoek where demand for meat is sky high. Today while reminiscing on the humble beginnings of his abattoir and farming business outside Brakwater on the farm called Three Angels, he describes his enterprise as flourishing and peaceful.

Stanley said peace and stability in the country and in one’s life are very important rather than to have a lot of money. “Today people especially young people waste their monies on things they don’t need. They waste money on unnecessary things such as vehicles and cellphones that are only required by business people,” said the extrovert who speaks several languages, among them Afrikaans, Otjiherero, Oshiwambo, Damara and Tswana.

The businessman, who designed shoes in his heyday, said he studied shoe design in Durban and worked as a shoe designer in Windhoek until 1989 when he quit.

In 1990 Stanley bought a small farm and decided to turn it into a small abattoir. “First I started slaughtering cattle in Katutura behind my house and it was against municipal bylaws so I decided to take it out of town to my new plot that I bought in 1985,” he said. He took his business and many customers to his plot because more people wanted fresh meat particularly goat and beef.

“We prefer to slaughter the animals here rather than have it in the city to avoid a bad smell in town,” says the pensioner. Today he has a small feedlot to feed animals he buys from farmers and through auctions around the country.

Stanley says he sells 300 goat carcasses each month. His biggest market he says are Zulus from Kwazulu Natal in South Africa. “They became good buyers because they prefer goats.” He said there is no fixed price for his animals that are priced according to size. “Sometimes when they are in high demand the price goes up and when they are not in demand the price goes down,” he said. Prices for goats and sheep range from N$700 up to N$1 000.

Keeping the animals in good condition is a tough and demanding job particularly in the prevailing drought.  “We make our own fodder by mixing maize cobs, straw and grass to feed the animals in our pens,” he told New Era.

Stanley’s small abattoir is nicely built and keeps pace with any hygienic big slaughterhouse around the country. Today the workforce has grown to seven people who stay with their families on the farm.

He said people who need meat for kapana braais are among his biggest customers of cattle. He slaughters at least two cows per week. “Sometimes I slaughter three goats in an hour but when more people come to my plot, the demand (to slaughter) starts rising especially during month-end,” he explained.

Stanley said although his customers are kapana vendors, New Era could not get hold of any vendors because the cattle they bought were already slaughtered at four o’clock in the morning for them to start selling the meat in Katutura early – thus they were not at the farm.

Stanley said his farm is peaceful and criminals have not yet targeted him because there are a lot of people on the farm. Stanley said competition around the smallholding is tough but it is not that hard because everyone gets a slice of the cake.

The man with many moons behind his back advises young people there is only one way to success, which is hard work. He cautioned the young folk to stay away from illegal activities and rather to concentrate on their studies in order to take the country forward.

By Loide Jason