She studied Agricultural Economics and Agronomy at Stellenbosch University before joining the department of agriculture as an agricultural economist. She went back to University to do an honours degree in Journalism and began to practice the craft. While working on community newspapers, she completed a Masters degree in Science Journalism on journalists' need for numerical literacy and was quite rattled by the many examples of illiteracy she found in newspapers. She also holds an MPhil in Land and Agrarian Studies and has investigated change in the commercial farming sector for the PhD thesis she hopes to complete before Christmas.