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THE
GRAIN AND OILSEED INDUSTRY
OF SOUTH AFRICA – A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME
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are made in such a manner that the council is representative of a broad spectrum
of interest groups, including consumer groups and emerging farmers who were
excluded to a great extent in the past.
The members of the NAMC must possess practical knowledge and experience on the
agricultural industry, the production of agricultural products, local and international
marketing of agricultural products, agricultural economics and/or the production and
marketing of agricultural products by small and emerging farmers.
The NAMC was given greater powers than its predecessor, whose main task it was
to advise the Minister of Agriculture, which advice he could ignore in any case. The
NAMC has its own staff, in contrast to the previous dispensation, where the AMC had
to use seconded staff, and its budget is approved by the Minister of Agriculture after
consultation with the Minister of Finance.
If the NAMC makes recommendations on statutory measures, whether they be
the introduction of new measures or the continuation, amendment or revoking of
existing measures, the minister is obliged to publish his reasons for the acceptance,
rejection or re-referral in the Government Gazette.
After the 1996 Act was implemented, statutory measures with respect to record-
keeping, registration and the submission of returns in various agricultural industries,
including maize, wheat, oilseeds and sorghum were introduced. Although various
industries completely abolished statutory measures, levies were introduced in a
number of industries after the commencement of the Act, including in the wheat and
sorghum industries.
When the NP withdrew from the Government of National Unity, the NP’s Minister
of Agriculture, Dr Kraai van Niekerk, was replaced by Mr Derek Hanekom,
a Minister who had been appointed by the new ANC government. The new
Minister’s view was simply that the marketing schemes should be abolished
and the control boards should be dissolved on 1 May 1997. He was not prepared
to listen to NAMPO’s repeated requests to phase in the transition process to a
deregulated market over time.
On 28 November 1996 Minister Hanekom announced that from the beginning
of the next season, in other words from 1 May 1997, there would be no floor price
for maize and that a free-market system would apply. He was not even prepared
to meet delegations from producers about the matter. It appears that his decision
could have been influenced by his dissatisfaction with an increase in the domestic
price of maize due to a domestic shortage, which he felt had been caused deliberately
by exports. Consequently, major changes to the agricultural marketing environment
had to be implemented within a very brief period.
EVEN WHEN CONTROLLED MARKETING WAS
ESTABLISHED AS FAR BACK AS THE 1930S SOME
GROUPS AND INDIVIDUALS BELIEVED THAT THE
RESTRICTIVE REGISTRATION REQUIREMENTS OF
THE WHEAT BOARD WOULD LEAD TO MARKET
CONCENTRATION. WITH HINDSIGHT, THESE VIEWS
COULD PERHAPS BE JUSTIFIED BY THE CONVICTION
IN 2009 OF MILLERS AND BAKERS WITH RESPECT
TO UNCOMPETITIVE PRACTICES UNDER THE
COMPETITION ACT OF 1998. IN ONE CASE FOUR
BAKERS WERE ACCUSED OF PRICE FIXING, WHILE THE
COMPETITION TRIBUNAL CONVICTED 17 MILLERS OF
PRICE FIXING IN THE OTHER CASE.
Sound bite: For two years prior to the in-
troduction of the free market, the surplus
removal scheme created a floor price in the
maize market – Mr Cerneels Claassen.
Sound bite: The abolishment of the Wheat
Board followed on the phasing out of the
one channel system – Mr Andries Beyers.
