Magoebaskloof community remembers Nipper Thompson

TZANEEN – Born into a family of naturalists and explorers with a deep interest in African culture and history, Nipper Thompson lived a life shaped by his love of nature and curiosity about the world around him.

Thompson, a beloved member of the Magoebaskloof community of the farm Wegraakbosch, renowned for its cheesemaking, passed away from cancer on August 12, 2025.

Thompson studied geology at UCT and went on to work for Foskor in Sekukuneland, Beauty, and Alldays.

In 1981, Nipper married Sylvia Linder, beginning a lifelong partnership of shared adventures. A few years later, in 1985, the couple spent a year in Switzerland, where their daughter Michele was born. Nipper worked in the Alps herding cows, milking, cleaning stables, and making cheese.

He was fascinated by the simplicity of the processes and the excellence of the product, an approach he later brought home to South Africa.

In 1986, the Thompsons returned to Magoebaskloof to take over the family farm, Wegraakbosch, on Cheerio Road. There, sons Daniel and Louis were born.

Nipper dedicated himself to organic farming, producing handmade cheeses and continuing the family’s wholesale deciduous tree nursery. He cultivated flowering cherries, crabapples, maples, and magnolias, supplying nurseries across South Africa, and carried on the tradition of protea bunches started by his mother. In the early 2000s, he even built a roadside stall from bluegum poles specially cut at Stevens Lumber Mill.

Although Nipper was not fond of selling, often preferring to give things away, he was passionate about sharing nature. Every weekend, he could be found hiking the mountains, stopping to brew tea and enjoy his signature cheese-and-onion open sandwiches.

He will be remembered as a gentle soul, deeply rooted in the land, whose love of nature, organic farming, and the mountains will continue to inspire all who knew him.

Words by Lisa Martus as told to her by Sylvia Thompson.