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THE
GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY
OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME
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but rather consumers of maize in whose interest it would be to keep the maize price
at low levels. The basis on which the Maize Board was constituted in practice led to
a cherry producer and later a cattle producer becoming Chairperson of the Maize
Board – something with which the true maize producers could not make peace.
The final straw for the maize producers was the refusal by the National Maize
Committee in 1964 to pay an amount from the surplus in the Stabilisation Fund to
producers at the request of the Free State and Transvaal maize Congresses. The
request was motivated by the severe drought in the summer rainfall areas in the
preceding years that had seriously crippled producers financially.
The resolution by the maize Congresses of the SAAU that year was that the Maize
Board would be requested to make a back payment of 25 c/sack of maize to producers
to enable them to produce again in the next season. At that stage production loans
were not yet available and the commercial banks did not want to advance money for
production purposes.
However, the Maize Board refused the request. This led to great dissatisfaction,
particularly after the minutes of the Maize Board revealed that the maize producers’
own representatives were to be blamed for this decision.
After the maize price for the 1964/1965 season had been announced, a group of
producers from Bothaville, among which Messrs Fanie Ferreira, Crawford von Abo
and Giep Nel, held a series of meetings in the former North-West Free State and
Western Transvaal to emphasise the necessity of a payment from the Stabilisation
Fund and plan further action. This led to the election of maize producer commit-
tees in the two areas, who launched a large lobbying campaign and held talks on
various occasions with the Maize Board, the National Maize Committee and the
SAAU, but to no avail.
The dissatisfaction of the maize producers with the way in which they were
represented and the way in which their representation in the Maize Board was
determined, continued to increase. They spelt out clearly that they were no longer
prepared to accept that themaize industry be handled as ‘general farmingmatters’ by
a coordinating central organisation (SAAU structures). They insisted on a dispensa-
tion in terms of which the maize industry would be represented by maize producers
and they would therefore gain a greater say in their own interests.
However, the regional dispensation proposed by the maize producers to achieve this
was voted down at the Free State Agricultural Union’s Congress on 3 March 1966.
Because of this, Ferreira walked out of the Congress, followed by about 200 other
maize producers.
Establishment of SAMPI
Directly afterwards, the maize producers convened at the insistence of Messrs
Hennie Delport and Von Abo. At the meeting it was decided to establish a maize
THERE WERE TWO STRONG GROUPS OF
PRODUCERS IN PARTICULAR WHO DEMANDED
SELF-DETERMINATION AND FAIR PRICES FOR
THEIR PRODUCTS. THE ONE GROUP WAS FROM
BOTHAVILLE, WITH MESSRS HENNIE DELPORT,
HENNIE DE JAGER, CRAWFORD VON ABO, GIEP NEL,
JANNEMAN VENTER AND LUDICK SCHLEBUSCH AT
THE FOREFRONT. THE OTHER GROUP WAS FROM
THE FORMER WESTERN TRANSVAAL (NORTH WEST),
WITH MESSRS CALLIE VAN WYK, ANDRE DU PREEZ
AND JAN COMBRINK AS THEIR LEADERS.