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“Fibre girl” is how Cecile van Rie is lovingly referred to by many of her neighbours at the Eedenglen Retirement Village in Jeffreys Bay, for her dedication to helping them at any time during the day or night with any technological challenges they might face.
Cecile initially began her career working as a radiographer more than 30 years ago, but as a single mother at the time she needed an increase in salary and decided to make the career shift to a pharmaceutical company where she worked for nine years.
While working at the pharmaceutical company, her friend, Peter Gillies, suggested she join his telecommunication company, Telephone Brokers, where she continued to work for seven years.
She said that after winning a sales incentive while working there, she was fortunate enough to travel to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
While at a business conference there, Cecile was encouraged to start her own telecommunications company, which she was initially reluctant to do.
“I was reluctant to start my own business, because as a single mother of two young children at the time I could not afford the necessary equipment I needed for my business,” said Cecile.
She said that while speaking to her children, Ruben Venter and Cindy Nieuwoudt, who were 13 and 15-years-old at the time, they were very excited at the prospect of their mother working from home and therefore prompted her to take the leap of faith to establish her own business.
While discussing possible business names with Ruben, Cecile said he suggested the name “Chit Chat” since he knew that his mother enjoyed talking.
“When registering my business, I was reluctant to submit the business name Chit Chat to Cipro, since most telecommunication businesses had more serious names, but to my surprise the name was accepted,” said Cecile.
Finally, on April 1, 2004, Chit Chat was established and operated from her home in Randburg.
Cecile later employed Zama Hlatshwayo who has continued to do an excellent job with their good clientele base.
After moving to Eedenglen Retirement Village in Jeffreys Bay in 2020, she said that the residents quickly learnt that she had some knowledge about various technological equipment, and they began asking her for help as they battled to come to grips with using Wi-Fi, Netflix, YouTube, and many other applications.
With the rollout of fibre at the retirement village, Cecile said many of the residents requested her assistance to set up their various devices, such as their smartphones and television sets, and often refer to her as the “fibre girl”.
She said that it is also important that they are connected to various applications on their tablets and phones, so that they can continue enjoying their favourite shows during loadshedding.
Despite helping the residents with the same problem multiple times, Cecile said that they easily forget how to fix the problems when using their devices.
To combat this, she said that she writes down step-by-step instructions which have helped them greatly.
Cecile said that they contact her at all hours of the day for help, and in some instances the residents’ children contact her to help their parents when they are not able to do so themselves.
“I do not have any off-hours because they call at any time. Sometimes I leave my house at 19:00 to be of assistance,” said Cecile.
“It is not always convenient to get up and help when they call, but it is rewarding to be able to help them when they need me.”
Cecile said that when she has IT-related difficulties she is not able to solve she often contacts Ruben who is an IT specialist based in England, or Cindy who is an HR specialist in Johannesburg.
When asked how much she charges for her help, she said that she often tells her neighbours that she works for rusks, which her husband, Sven, enjoys.
“My husband loves rusks, but I unfortunately cannot bake them, so I ask the residents to pay me with some rusks,” said Cecile.
She said that many times she finds jars of rusks at her front door from all the nice people she has met at the retirement village.
When she is not helping the residents at the retirement village, or working on her telecommunication business, Cecile enjoys playing golf and squash.
She also has a black belt with a second Dan in karate, an achievement she is very proud of.
In addition, she was also crowned Jeffreys Bay Squash Champion for 2022.
