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CHAPTER 6
THIS YEAR – AND IN THE
FUTURE – THE EMPHASIS
WILL HOWEVER STILL BE
ON AGRICULTURAL AND
AGRICULTURE-RELATED
EXHIBITORS. YOU ARE ALSO
AWARE OF OUR POINT OF
VIEW THAT WE ARE NOT
AFTER NUMBERS, BE IT
VISITORS OR EXHIBITORS.
THE NAMPO HARVEST DAY IS
AND REMAINS A BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITY, WHERE A
PLATFORM IS CREATED FOR
INPUT PROVIDERS AND
PRODUCERS IN ORDER TO
MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS
ABOUT PRODUCTION
AND PURCHASES.
– Mr Vic Mouton, Harvest Day
Chairperson, during a press
conference in 2002
of NAMPO. Any member of the public could work as volunteer at the Harvest
Day. After a few years such a person was usually approached to serve on a
committee and could very well become a Chairperson of a committee or the
Harvest Day Committee.
A decision in the eighties by die Executive of NAMPO to place the Harvest Day
Committee under the management of the Executive led to the Chairperson of the
Harvest Day Committee becoming an elected Executive member of NAMPO. This
aligned the control of the Harvest Day as prominent commercial service once
more with that of the organisation.
Mr Japie Grobler – then a member of the Harvest Day Committee as well as Executive
member of NAMPO – was therefore elected as Chairperson of the NAMPO Harvest
Day Committee as a working committee of the NAMPO Executive in 1987. Grobler
– a well-known agricultural leader who was also the only person who served on the
Executive of SAMPI, NAMPO and Grain SA – held this position until 1989. The
committee system, which is still used to this day, resulted in everything running very
smoothly, and by 1987 there was a management committee, as well as committees
for demonstrations, the pub, liaison, the grounds, animals, refreshments, farming, and
farmers’ patents.
A following decision of the Management Committee determined that all the elected
management committee members had to report for work during the Harvest Day.
Those that could not be there, had to explain to the Chairperson of NAMPO why they
could not be on duty.
The Chairpersons of the Harvest Day from 1987 were as follows:
• Mr Japie Grobler from Bothaville (1987 - 1989)
• Mr Bully Botma from Bothaville (1989 - 2001)
• Mr Vic Mouton from Koster (2001 - 2005)
• Mr Jub Jubelius from Hennenman (2005 - 2011)
• Mr Cobus van Coller from Viljoenskroon (2011 - 2016)
Senior officials of the Harvest Day
Hannes van Wyk, Managing Director: SAMPI and
SAMPI Harvest Day Director 1974 - 1976
WhenMarthaville became the permanent home of the Harvest Day, andwith SAMPI’s
office situated in Bothaville, the Harvest Day pioneer Hannes van Wyk was appointed
as Managing Director of SAMPI, and at the same time as Harvest Day Director. His
brief for the Harvest Day was to handle its establishment on the farm and therefore
to also manage the layout of the grounds and the demonstration area.
Two giant restaurants and toilet facilities – the first buildings on the grounds – were
erected in time for the 1974 Harvest Day. Other permanent facilities included an
administrative head office, entrance gates, a beer garden and a caravan park. The
show area and buildings extended over 16 ha.
The mobile demonstrations of the 1974 Harvest Day made provision for harvesters,
threshers and pickers, driers and bulk-handling balers, rakes, hammer mills, stubble-
tillage implements, ploughs, fertiliser sifters, planters, hoeing and soil-breaking
implements, as well as spraying equipment.
Various input providers spontaneously jumped in and – free of charge – helped to
make Marthaville a complete Harvest Day Venue. Massey Ferguson ploughed the
whole farm free of charge, while fuel for the tractors was donated by Shell. Pioneer
Seed donated the seed, Fedmis the fertiliser, CibaGeigy the herbicides, VETSAK
the spraying equipment, implements were provided by various companies and six
workers’ houses were built free of charge by TAFSCO.
Die Landman
(February 1974) described the development of the Harvest Day farm
as an excellent example of co-operation and teamwork between SAMPI’s Harvest
Day management and a number of private companies and co-operatives who had
the service theme of the Harvest Day at heart. In the subsequent years structures
Mr Hannes van Wyk
“
”