About Jubaweni
It Started With Four Boys, a Game Farm and a Lot of Sport.
Long before Jubaweni officially opened its doors in 2001, something was already happening on a game farm called Roosterlaagte.
What began as family weekends in the bushveld slowly became something bigger — a place where children could play, compete, explore and create memories that would last long after the tour was over.
The Beginning
Family • Farm • Sport
The Beginning
Four Boys, Roosterlaagte and a Love for Sport.
Long before Jubaweni officially opened its doors in 2001, something was already happening on a game farm called Roosterlaagte.
J.A. “Joep” Joubert was a Pretoria attorney for more than 30 years. Somewhere along the way, he bought Roosterlaagte as a weekend game farm — a place for his family to escape the city and spend time together in the bushveld.
Joep and his wife, Nelia, raised four boys: Altus, Wihann, Drikus and Leon.
And the Joubert boys played sport. A lot of sport.
Roosterlaagte
Family Farm
Four Boys
Sport
Bushveld
The First Weekends
There Were No Sports Facilities. So They Made One.
Rugby, cricket and just about every school sports tour imaginable became part of family life. At the end of a season, Joep would invite one of the boys' teams to the farm for the weekend.
There were no sports facilities. No purpose-built camps. No grand plan.
So they made one.
A piece of veld was cleared and the grass was mowed. A mat was rolled out for a cricket pitch. Fathers played sons. Rugby was played in the long grass.
Teams ate together, slept over, explored the farm and spent the weekend doing what children do best when you give them enough space — they played.
Cleared Veld
Cricket Mat
Rugby in the Grass
Teams Stayed Over
They Played
03
1990
It started with Altus's teams coming to the farm around 1990.
What began as a simple weekend on the farm became something the teams wanted to experience again.
The boys kept playing. The teams kept visiting. And without anyone realising it at first, the idea behind Jubaweni was already starting to take shape.
And They Kept Coming
Sport • Farm Weekends • Memories
Then an Idea Started to Grow
What Began as Weekends Became Something Bigger.
The Joubert family knew sport. They knew children. They knew what made a great tour memorable. And they had the bushveld.
04
2001
In 2001, Jubaweni was formally established.
What began as year-end weekends for the boys and their teammates gradually became something bigger.
The family had seen how powerful it was when children had space to play, compete, explore and spend real time together.
So why not put sport, children and the bushveld together in one place?
Sport
Children
Bushveld
Memorable Tours
Jubaweni
The Idea Grew
From Farm Weekends to Jubaweni
What started with a patch of cleared veld and a rolled-out cricket mat would, over the years, grow into dedicated camps, extensive sporting facilities, adventure activities and a destination that today hosts thousands of learners every year.
Nelia Made It Work
Care • Food • Accommodation • Organisation
But None of It Happens Without Nelia
The Boys Could Play. Nelia Made Sure Everything Else Happened.
While Joep and the boys could dream up another field, another game or another adventure, someone still had to ask the important questions.
What are they going to eat?
How do you look after all these children?
That person was Nelia.
Nelia Joubert is as much a part of the Jubaweni story as the fields, the farm and the four boys. Her ability to turn the family's ideas into something that actually worked helped turn weekends on a family game farm into Jubaweni.
Accommodation
Food
Organisation
Care
Group Hosting
Jubaweni Grew
From One Farm to More Space, More Camps and More Possibility.
In 2010, the Joubert family bought the neighbouring farm, Ruimte, primarily because of its abundant water.
06
2010
The year the neighbouring farm, Ruimte, became part of the Jubaweni story.
But, as had happened with Jubaweni before it, Ruimte soon became much more than that.
Today, Ruimte has its own camp and sporting facilities, allowing Jubaweni to accommodate even more schools, teams and groups while retaining the space and bushveld character that have always been central to the experience.
Although the property has grown across the two farms, there is only one name.
It Is All Jubaweni.
Ruimte Farm
More Space
More Camps
Sporting Facilities
One Name
More Space to Grow
Ruimte • Camps • Bushveld
From Roosterlaagte to Jubaweni
The Facilities Changed. The Reason Never Did.
Jubaweni has grown enormously since those first weekends, but underneath it all, the heart of the story has stayed the same.
Still the Same Idea
Kids • Sport • Bushveld • Memories
The facilities have changed enormously since those first weekends.
The reason for doing it hasn't.
We know children. We love sport. We love the bushveld. And we believe there is enormous value in giving young people the space to get outside, compete, explore, challenge themselves and spend real time together.
Learners welcomed every year.
Of bushveld space to explore.
Distinct camps across Jubaweni.
But underneath all of that, Jubaweni is still built around the same idea that started on Roosterlaagte more than three decades ago: