At play from dust till dawn
The great pursuit of happiness pays off as the couple finally wed, writes Thembalethu Zulu
ZEBEDIELA, a group of villages southeast of Polokwane in Limpopo, is well known for its production of citrus fruit. But for Jerry Moabelo, it also produced Katlego Kanyane, the apple of his eye. The two met at the University of Johannesburg where they were studying engineering.
Theirs is not a typical boy-meets-girl story as there was a bit of, well, engineering, in their meeting.
One day in 2005 after a lecture, 20-year-old Jerry, who hails from Hammanskraal, was discussing girls with a fellow classmate. The friend mentioned a gorgeous “fresher” (first-year student) in one of his classes. Jerry liked what he heard and made a bet with his friend that she would be his.
“We strategically planned a moment when I would meet up with them after a class,” says Jerry. When the day came, her looks and easy manner left him stumped and he failed to muster up enough courage to make a move before she reached her residence. And so began the great pursuit.
Following their initial meeting, Katlego and Jerry bumped into each other a few times. He kept asking for her number, but to no avail.
“I finally decided to give it to him,” says Katlego. “He tried calling me several times but I was not interested so I ignored his calls.” Being religious, Jerry tried to follow the scriptures in that “love is patient”. But he became desperate and decided to pull a bold move to get his girl by convincing the manager of the girls-only residence where she stayed to let him in — or he wouldn’t leave. It worked.
During a conversation as they left the residence, Jerry discovered Katlego’s love of chess. Eager to impress, he borrowed a chess board from a friend.
Katlego recalls: “As we were playing, I noticed a strange thing. Jerry allowed me to play first and all he was doing was copying every move I made. I realised the poor guy could not play chess.”
Jerry is now a maintenance engineer at BHP Billiton and Katlego is a mechanical engineer at Sasol.
Nine years on and the two managed to bring “Sandton to Zebediela” in their elaborate wedding. They were chauffeured around in a Maserati for the day, a gift from Tebogo Mogaladi, a friend who owns Polokwane City Football Club. A marquee was set up on the dusty roads of Magatle Village by RRevents, complete with a bar service and barmen. The Moabelos hired bodyguards to keep order as they were in the middle of a village and were worried about the crowds. This did not help their numbers, however, as they went from 300 invited guests to several hundred more. Luckily, four cows had been slaughtered for the occasion. They also served everything from whiskey to mbamba (traditional beer) to their guests.
It is said that it takes a village to raise a child and, in Limpopo, it seems the same is true for marrying one off.