A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME

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chapter 5
The Executive Management team under De Villiers in July 2016 was as follows:
Since 2000 Grain SA’s General Manager position has been filled by the follow-
ing persons:
Mr Steve Shone 2001 - 2005
Dr John Purchase 2005 - 2007
Dr Kobus Laubscher 2008 - 2011
Mr Jannie de Villiers 2011 - 2016
Management member Portfolio
Dr Dirk Strydom Manager: Grain Economics and
Marketing
Dr Marinda Visser Manager: Grain Research and
Policy Centre
Mr Nico Vermaak Manager: Corporate Services
Ms Jane McPherson Manager: Farmer Development
Programme
Ms Christa Herbst Manager: Financial Services Mr Johan Loxton
Mr Nico Vermaak
Ms Rita de Swardt
FUNDING
Grain SA’s income for funding its activities initially came from subscription fees
and the proceeds of the NAMPO Harvest Day, with a few other diverse sources,
like advertising income from the magazine, Mielies/Maize (later SA Graan/Grain).
The proceeds from an investment made in the time of NAMPO contributed to the
total funding pool. The assets and reserves of NOPO, the WPO and SPO were also
liquidated and paid over to the new organisation.
Funding for research projects was mainly obtained from the grain trusts that
were created after the control boards had been abolished. This made a major
contribution to the funding of Grain SA’s activities, particularly with respect to
farmer development. In time the grain trusts started scaling down the funding,
to the extent that Grain SA’s remaining income was no longer adequate for the
organisation’s needs.
The organisation was therefore forced to obtain other sources of financing, so
that a voluntary levy on grain deliveries was introduced from October 2002. This
involved that producers who were members of Grain SA paid a levy of R2,00/ton
to Grain SA on grain delivered by them. This was a voluntary levy that was recovered
by collection agents, being the companies where grain is delivered, and paid over to
Grain SA. The members could also pay the levy directly to Grain SA, for instance in
cases where grain was sold to a party who was not appointed as a collection agent.
From 2015 the standard voluntary levy was replaced by differentiated voluntary lev-
ies that vary from R2,50/ton for maize and sorghum to R10,00/ton for groundnuts.
The levy funds collected in this way are mainly used to fund commodity service
actions, research and marketing. However, Grain SA is still in the process of at-
tending to sustainable financing and increasing the percentage of levy payers. In
the meantime, Grain SA retains its autonomy, as it is a voluntary organisation that
funds itself. Currently the levy income ensures about a third of the total income
– the rest is obtained from NAMPO Harvest Day, SA Graan/Grain, investments
and trusts.
The employment of the levy funds is annually approved by the Grain SA Congress.
Initially a portion was also allocated to the creation of a legal aid fund with a view
to possible legal actions.
Full particulars of Grain SA’s income and expenditure and the status of the organi-
sation’s financial position can be obtained from the annual reports published on
Grain SA’s website,