You may never actually notice her but if there is an event involving Maties Sport – large or small – you can bet that Kim Coetzee is here, there, and everywhere.
Long before the guests arrive, she is working up a sweat with logistics, compliances, suppliers, quotations, approvals and spreadsheets. While the event rolls out, you may see her darting around, trouble-shooting with a radio in one hand and a cell phone in the other. And then once everyone leaves happy, there is Kim still with the clean-up crew.
An inside joke at Maties Sport, is Kim’s step count in a day during a large-scale event such as Varsity Cup with 16 000 fans and 1 000 moving parts at each game. “My record,” says Kim, “is 35 000 steps in one day … which begins at 7.30am and ends at 11.30pm!”
Kim has no complaints though. “I just love what I do. Yes, there are lots of compliances and admin but there is a huge amount of creativity involved too in designing an event. Also, simply finding an answer to ‘how can I make this work?’ is a creative process,” she says.
Since joining Maties in 2014, Kim has been mastering the complexities of staging local, national and international sporting events, along with cherished standards such as the annual Maties Sport Awards gala. “We average 90 events a year, from small gatherings to USSA competitions, Varsity Sports and global events such as the T20 Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2022, and the U20 Rugby World Championships in 2023 and 2024. Next up will be the FISU Rugby Sevens World Championship in 2026.”
As she mentions the FISU Sevens, you notice her eyes start to roll upwards. This is not in dread of what’s to come, nor is she being rude – this is classic Kim alerting her brain to start activating for something 11 months ahead. “My brain is always buzzing with ideas. I’m here for it. Once I even taught choreography to a dance group, and I am always sketching out plans because not everyone reads spreadsheets. Drikus Hancke calls me the Digital Picasso,” she laughs.
Kim credits her early years in the hotel and hospitality industry in Stellenbosch for providing the foundations for her career path. She believes those years taught her “to see everything all at once but still focus on the detail”.
“This is what makes a good events person. You need to give each tiny component attention but at the same time keep the big picture in focus … and you must make it look easy and show that you have everything under control. Like a swan: flap-flap underwater but calm above.”
Kim, a mother of four (aged between 18 and 24) and besotted grandmother of one (“She’s a copy and paste of me!”), says that her approach to work is the same as her approach to parenting. “Our children don’t come with instructions, so we make mistakes, we grow our understanding and skills, we fix the issues and we keep going. We keep going out of love for our children and for the intended outcome. That’s my simple life and work philosophy – just love it.”
Many do not realise that initially Kim trained in diesel engineering! “I have never had any desire to work pretty or clean, so sweating through a 16-hour day during competitions suits me just fine!”