Meet the people

WD and Miza van der Spuy

Owners, Snobs Coffee Roastery

WD was raised in Petrusburg in the Western Free State and Miza hails from Tsitsikamma. They met when they both taught at PT Sanders Combined School in Madikgetla, and married in 2013. “So we’re both inkommers,” WD says. “And I must say, that’s how we felt for a long time. This is a tight-knit community. It was a bit like trying to fit into a new family. But since we opened the coffee shop and Miza started teaching at Trompsburg Primary, we’ve felt like we have become part of the family. I think in a community like this people like seeing that you’re willing to make a contribution. It also helps if you have children. They fit in everywhere, and you start getting party invitations.”

He resigned from the school in September 2017 and opened the coffee shop in December that year.

“It was crazy,” Miza says. “I was pregnant with Kyra and, belly and all, I scurried around and helped make sure the place could open its doors. We had no idea whether it would work. This is the platteland, and opening a new business is risky. Starting a coffee shop and roastery is in fact stupid. But we’re still here!”

And they will be here for a long time still, as they want to raise their children, including their new-born baby daughter, in Trompsburg.

“Our house is close to the coffee shop and the school, and we can walk everywhere. You can also walk anywhere in town without feeling nervous or threatened. There’s a tranquillity here that you won’t easily find elsewhere. And when we feel like it, we drive to Bloemfontein – and hour later and we’re in the city!”