A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

THE

GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY

OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

ႄႆ

• Global commodity prices (presented by NAMPO’s senior economists)

• Panel discussion (specialists in a specific field as studio guests, anchored by

NAMPO staff)

• NAMPO focus (presented by Dr Kit le Clus and Mr Frans Lubbe, with a focus on

matters like import and export parity, rand/dollar exchange rate, cash prices and

Safex prices)

The attitude that applied at NAMPO at all times, namely if you start something,

you do it to succeed, was once again to be seen in the case of the TV programme.

Although setting up and successfully running a TV programme was not part of

NAMPO’s core business, the impact of new grain marketing circumstances on its

members forced the organisation to fill the gap.

The programme eventually ended in 2002 when Grain SA decided that sufficient

market information was relatively easily available at that stage and that a website

for the organisation could take over this function.

Debt settlements

In NAMPO’s striving and vision to supply producers with information and possible

solutions to problems in the industry, the organisation also became involved in

finding solutions to the debt problem in which many producers found themselves

after the severe drought of 1982 to 1984.

This started when a producer approached NAMPO for advice on the enormous

interest load dragging him down. Gous requested Mr Tiny van Niekerk, a NAMPO

staff member and former auditor, to check the producer’s financial statements for

possible errors. Van Niekerk found several irregularities in the producer’s bank

accounts, among other things changes to interest rates, addition of unjustified

costs and incorrect and/or unfair rounding off of figures. He was then requested

to check a number of other producers’ accounts, where he found the same things.

On the basis of this, NAMPO advised the producers to negotiate with the com-

mercial banks with regard to a settlement of their debt. NAMPO assisted a number

of the producers by instructing attorneys to institute a claim against one of the

commercial banks to recover amounts that had been charged incorrectly against

their bank accounts. Although NAMPO was not involved in the matter to the end,

it culminated in the commercial bank concerned having to repay the producers a

large amount that had been illegally recovered from them.

NAMPO STAFF COMFORT-

ABLE IN FRONT OF AND

BEHIND THE CAMERA

NAMPO’s own staff presented the

agricultural and technical parts of

the TV programme. The current

affairs section, NAMPO focus and

commodity discussions were nor-

mally led by Mr Giel van Zyl and/or

Dr Kit le Clus. They were assisted

by Messrs Frans Lubbe, Fanie

Brink and André Ferreira. Mr Johan

Loxton was the co-ordinator of the

TV programme.

The staff were assisted by the fol-

lowing individuals:

• A Minister from agricultural

ranks handled the opening

with devotions

• Mss Chante Hinds and Deidre

Brand were the presenters

• Mr Sakkie Nigrini of the SA

Weather Service handled the

weather programme

• Representatives from spon-

sors and experts from the in-

dustry participated in panel

discussions

NAMPO TV’s first broadcast was on 9 September 1997.