The village of Mtalala in the Eastern Cape, which lies along a popular tourist route where convoys of 4×4 vehicles pulling caravans often make their way to the Wild Coast, inspired a young man to venture into a business of a different kind.

While growing up in this village in the 1970s, Noel Stapelfeldt (51) marvelled at these grand vehicles and vowed to get involved in the lifestyle one day.

Back then, it seemed a far-fetched dream for a young herdboy from a rural village. But dreams do come true, and his has.

He is the owner of Impilo 4×4 Driver Training, one of the first black-owned 4×4 training companies in the country.

The company celebrated 20 years in business this month. Over the years, Stapelfeldt has had opportunities to be involved in such events as the annual Limpopo 4×4 Challenge, the Land Rover G Competition and the internationally renowned Top Gear TV show.

His company is accredited by the Transport Education Training Authority and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations as a skills development ­provider.

“The reason we called our company Impilo [health] [was that] for us it was our life on the line. And we had to do our best to make it work for us,” Stapelfeldt said.

The company provides driver training to people from all walks of life, including students who have recently obtained their driver’s licences.

A driver development programme forms part of the training on offer, and is designed to teach new drivers all the techniques that driving schools don’t usually get around to.  

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Other services include teaching advanced driving, truck driving and defensive driving, as well as team building and community work involving schools in the area.

“We wish we could introduce our driver development programme to the minister of transport. Every person who has completed their driving test should spend at least two or three days on the driver development course.

“This will prepare one mentally and ensure that we have better drivers on the road,” Stapelfeldt said. Impilo 4×4 has a staff of five and, whenever there is a rise in demand, enlists the help of freelance instructors based in Cape Town, Mpumalanga and Bloemfontein.

Stapelfeldt said it was difficult to break into the industry and to survive as a self-employed instructor.

“Transformation has taken place. In Joburg there’s a number of instructors of colour who freelance with big companies that have training facilities and are trying to get people of colour involved,” Stapelfeldt said.

Noel Stapelfeldt and his clients make a stop during one of Impilo’s 4×4 driver training courses. (Photo: Supplied)

He said that the biggest challenge in business was to maintain strength of mind, but he emphasised that humility was also key.

“Being a herdboy taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s okay not to know everything and it’s okay to ask for help,” he added.

Although he is now considered a master at his game, he reckons getting there wasn’t easy.

His family home in Mtalala village was on the way to the tourist destinations by the seaside and whenever travellers would unhurriedly motor past, young Stapel­feldt started yearning for their lifestyle.

“I would look at these 4x4s passing by and I would marvel at how they [the travellers] had their caravans, boats, trailers and fishing rods and how everybody seemed so happy,” Stapelfeldt said.

For young rural boys there isn’t much to do while herding, so as a form of entertainment Stapelfeldt and his fellow herders played a game of identifying the model of any vehicle approaching on the winding, dusty road.

“We would guess which vehicle it was before it appeared and that is where my love for the knowledge of 4x4s came from,” he said.

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Around 1977 his family moved to Durban, where he is still based, and even though other children would tease him because of his poor English, it did not deter him from doing his work as a newspaper vendor.

It was while he was selling newspapers that an old man who drove a customised 4×4 became a regular paper buyer, and in time absorbed Stapelfeldt into the motor industry.

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Stapelfeldt worked his way up, starting off as a panel beater. Over the years he made it to vehicle assessor, and eventually opened his own training company.

Juggling work on weekdays and working for Land Rover Experience on weekends, the newlywed, who relied on public transport himself, carried out humbling work such as washing other people’s cars, or being the last one to test-drive vehicles on the off-road course.

Stapelfeldt remembers that he did not fit the instructor profile, not only as a person of colour.

“Most instructors had some military background or some kind of iron man competition features, and everybody was buff and looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger,” he said with a chuckle.

“And there I was, this little herdboy, coming along trying to break into the industry,” said Stapelfeldt.

In 2002, after being jobless for some time, he thought about opening his own company aligned with his passion for vehicles and travel, and so Impilo 4×4 Driver Training was born.

Despite taxi owners’ lack of enthusiasm, Stapelfeldt has not given up on providing training to the taxi industry.

“There hasn’t been much buy-in because, firstly, not many people have the time for drivers to go off the road, but at what cost?

“If you think about it, one untrained [taxi] driver can kill 16 people,” Stapelfeldt said.

He said Impilo 4×4 was now in the process of training young instructors.

“We would like to add value to young people for anti-hijacking training, advanced driver training and 4×4 driver training,” he added.

The company looks forward to more successful years, with hopes of having a larger impact on society’s mindset and road safety, one driver at a time. Mukurukuru Media/DM168

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R25.