Patensie is known for oranges, not opera. But for the second year running, the small Gamtoos River Valley town has produced the winner of Agri’s Got Talent – and this time it’s Honey Katoo, a 29-year-old mother with an Idols golden ticket in her past and a classroom in her future.
Drive into Patensie and the first thing you notice is citrus. Orchards line the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape, and the town’s reputation has long rested on what grows on its trees.
Lately, it has been building a second reputation.
On a near-perfect spring evening at Rusticana outside Klapmuts, Honey Katoo of Endulini Fruit was named the winner of Agri’s Got Talent 2026. A year earlier, the title went to Jenedine Jantjies – also from Patensie. Two years, two winners, one small town.
Katoo knows Jantjies, and says it was last year’s win that convinced her to enter.
The night itself
Ten finalists took the stage in front of family, friends and colleagues. Katoo opened with “And I am telling you I’m not going“, the kind of song that leaves a singer nowhere to hide, and followed it with “Spirit“. Her control, power and clean, melodic tone earned her near-perfect scores from the judges.
She did not have it easy. Clareece Vlotman of Wolfpack in Wolseley finished a close second with “Listen“ and “Rolling in the deep“. Lwandile Nantsi of Laastedrift in Ceres took a different route altogether, getting the audience on its feet with “Dzwuwa Lawala“ and “Kufayayo“.
A week that changed the room
The gala was the final night of a week-long programme that went well beyond rehearsals. The ten contestants arrived as strangers, unsure of what lay ahead.
Over the following days they worked through voice training, personal development and life skills sessions under voice coach and artistic director Frieda van den Heever and technical lead Francois van der Merwe.
Somewhere along the way, competitors became a group. They backed each other up even while competing for the same prize – something Katoo returns to when she talks about the experience.
“Singing is a deeply personal thing for me,“ she says. “This week has been about recognising that there is always room to learn and to stay humble.“ She credits the coaches and what she calls her nine fellow “brothers and sisters in music“.
Winning was the hope, she admits. But what she takes home is bigger than the title: a week of self-discovery.
Not her first stage
Katoo is no newcomer to performing. She started singing young, taking part in school eisteddfods and competitions, and went on to complete an acting degree at AFDA. In 2021 she made it onto Idols and walked away with a golden ticket.
Then life took a different turn. She fell pregnant, and her priorities shifted. Today her daughter Zuri is five – and, by her mother’s account, already loves to sing.
Her biggest priority is raising and educating Zuri, and giving her every opportunity. Her next goal is closely linked: she is working to secure funding for a teaching diploma so she can teach children about singing and music.
“I never take anything for granted and am always open to learning,“ she says.
The voices behind the harvest
Agri’s Got Talent exists because of a simple observation. The Western Cape’s fruit and wine industries are known for world-class export produce – wine, citrus, apples, pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries and table grapes.
They are also full of remarkable singers whose voices are mostly heard in orchards, in packhouses or on the drive to work.
The competition, sponsored by Hortgro, the Citrus Growers’ Association, South African Table Grape Industry, South Africa Wine and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, sets out to give those people a stage.
The organisers say they discover incredible voices in agriculture every year, and many participants have never performed on stage before. The organisers describe it as a celebration of courage and joy, and of the workers who keep agriculture strong.
For an industry that often talks about its people in terms of jobs and wages, it is a useful reminder that the workforce is made up of individuals with talent, ambition and plans of their own. Katoo’s include a teaching diploma and a daughter who sings.
And Patensie? It may want to start preparing for next year.
Food For Mzansi is proud to be the media partner of Agri’s Got Talent 2026, celebrating the creativity, passion and exceptional talent shaping the future of South African agriculture.
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