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5
November 2018
A time of EXTREMES
t
he urgency associated with the speed with which the end of
the year is approaching and everything that has to be final-
ised before then, is keeping all the candles burning here at
Grain SA. At the time of writing the rain in the north was
scarce and the producers in the south had started harvesting
to make sure that all the grain gets into the silos as speedily
as possible.
It is also a time of extremes – which just increases everyone’s un-
certainty. Here and there the news is good – which makes us excited
– and then there is the incomprehensible blatant hostility towards
the organisation and its members.
One such a case was the recent establishment of another organisa-
tion for grain producers by a former member of Grain SA’s Executive.
This is definitely not in the interests of unity in agriculture, and it
is just logical that a race-based organisation will not have a future
in this country.
It feels like planting time in organised agriculture. Every engine room
is buzzing and smoking. The lights are burning until late and we eat
on the run. Diesel is expensive and time is limited. Everyone walks
an extra mile or two. A large number of meetings are held at grass-
roots level and emotions run high. People become irritable with
one another.
In all the chaos the wisdom of Solomon springs to mind: ‘He who
is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit
than he who takes a city.’ The challenge is: How do you remain calm
and exercise self-control under these circumstances? It sounds su-
perhuman. Yet it is possible.
My advice to you is to go to that place where you can find peace
and quiet and switch off everything around you so that you can
distinguish between fact and fable. Then you take the facts and set
your course for the future. This does not come naturally. Most of us
just want to work quicker and harder to keep all the balls in the air.
To stop and think is a greater challenge than just again taking a direc-
tion without reflecting properly about the course you choose.
The Agri SA Congress was one such a ray of light recently. A neat
summary of all the Congress resolutions on land passed since
2001 was provided. What stood out to me was the fact that despite
all the pressure, we have been extremely consistent through the
years. Our leaders kept us neatly in the middle of the road.
The challenge now, is to show others where the middle of the road
is too, and in that way contribute towards sustainable implementa-
tion. It is such consistency that generates respect for an organisation
and that causes the country’s political leaders to want to collaborate
with us in their search for solutions.
This is where patience plays a role: We had to wait patiently for all
the noise to die down (we could not participate in the noise). Only
then the pleads for collaboration could be heard. It remains a chal-
lenge, but it also remains the right thing to do.
Prof Quinton Johnson (chairperson: South African Institute for
Land, Heritage and Human Rights) also presented us as members
of the Congress with an important truth when he said the following:
‘Nothing about us, without us!’ This saying may have been coined
by the trade unions a few years ago, but it still applies today – and it
definitely applies to us as organised agriculture.
Agri SA has positioned itself as an organisation in an excellent
way to share in the search for solutions for the future. It will defi-
nitely not be easy, but my belief in what we stand for and in what
Louw Steytler (former Grain SA chairperson) has told us so often:
‘The centre will hold’, has been confirmed once again.