A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

THE

GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY

OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

ႄ

MORE THAN A CENTURY

LATER GRAIN SA, THE

MAIN BODY PROMOTING

THE INTERESTS OF GRAIN

AND OILSEED PRODUCERS

IN SOUTH AFRICA AT THE

BEGINNING OF THE 21ST

CENTURY, IS STILL AN

ORGANISATION WITH THE

INTERESTS OF PRODUCERS

AS ITS MAIN FOCUS.

MARKETING DISPENSATION

The previous

Commercial grain cultivation in South Africa only gained

momentum since the latter part of the nineteenth century,

after the discovery of gold and diamonds in the country.

Initially a total free-market system applied, but from the

early to middle 1930s the marketing of most grain products

in South Africa was for roughly 60 years subject to statutory

control measures, with control boards, schemes, pools and

other interventions by the government.

Even before the promulgation of the first legislation in this regard in 1938, violent

debates raged about and criticism was levelled against the introduction of these

measures. The debate never really ended, and eventually led to the repeal in 1996

of the statutory control measures and the return to the free-market system.

DEVELOPMENT OF CONTROLLED MARKETING

The period immediately after the end of the three-year-long Second Anglo-Boer War

between Britain and the Boer republics was characterised by almost desperate con-

ditions in the farming communities of the former Transvaal and Free State in par-

ticular: Farms had been abandoned, the major part of South Africa’s agricultural

land had been laid waste and largely destroyed, producers’ family life had been

substantially disrupted and great poverty prevailed among the farming communities.

In most cases producers had to start from scratch, with extremely limited means and

very primitive technology and farming methods.

Co-operative movement

These conditions were probably the main motive for the establishment of co-

operative associations from approximately 1908. At that stage maize production

in particular grew relatively rapidly, but producers had to market their crops

themselves. They generally did not have much business experience and were ex-

ploited by skilled traders. In due course this led to an awareness of the necessity

for co-operative negotiations, and in 1908 the former Transvaal passed the Co-

operative Societies Act, No. 17 of 1908, to make provision for the establishment

and regulation of co-operatives. In 1910 a similar act was passed in the Orange

Free State, and in 1922 the first co-operatives law of the Union of South Africa

was promulgated, namely the Co-operative Societies Act, No. 28 of 1922.

This legislation on co-operatives actually constituted the first steps towards

establishing controlled marketing. The main aim of these co-operatives, of which

only producers could be members, was to support producers in terms of the

marketing of their products and the provision of input resources, counselling and

later also financing. Although the government was instrumental in establishing

co-operatives by promulgating the first co-operatives act, the co-operative

societies were, from the earliest days, actually producer organisations: Their

members and directors were all bona fide farmers.