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CHAPTER 9
nominated as NAMPO’s first Maize Man of the Year in 1980, principally as a result
of his key role in the successful forming of NAMPO.
In 1981 Mr Crawford von Abo – a founder member of SAMPI and Chairperson the
Maize Board – was crowned Maize Man, and in 1982 this honour went to Mr Hennie
de Jager, Chairperson of NAMPO.
When Mr Giel van Zyl, former General Manager of NAMPO and later of Grain SA,
was appointed as administrative manager at NAMPO in 1983, a part of his task
was to take the Maize Man awards to the next level. After the constitution of a
representative panel of independent experts to assess the nominees according to
credible criteria, the practice was established at the time for the panel to visit every
nominee. The voting was by secret ballot and the winner was only announced on
the evening of the prestige event. The awards ceremony was also changed from a
semi-formal function to a formal black-tie event in one of the trendsetting five star
hotels in Johannesburg.
DR WILHELM REMEMBERS…
Dr Wilhelm Snyman, former director of the ARC Research Centre for Grain
Crops, was part of the selection panel since the institution of NAMPO’s Maize
Man project until the end of 1989. He thinks back to those years with a nostalgic
sparkle in his eye and shares a few of the humoristic and exceptional incidents
from that period.
The judging process often took more than a day and members of the selection
panel therefore had to stay over. Snyman says that they were received warmly
and hospitably like only the South African farming community can. ’Never in
my life was I so overwhelmed with top-notch meals and snacks accompanying
the regular coffee and tea. Instead of a night cap, Eno was a popular item on our
medicine list!‛
Another incident that Dr Snyman will always remember is the ‘high-octane
mampoer’ that one of the members offered early in the morning ‘for cleaning
the teeth’! Not used to ‘such strong medicine’, Snyman stopped coughing
only much later that day. It was so bad that one of the panel members asked
him whether he had whooping cough.
He also remembers the woman who very discreetly asked that they please
come for another visit soon. She said that it was the first time in years that
the farmyard was not an embarrassment to her. The cleaning up had even the
farm workers asking whether the farm was being sold and they were moving!
What impressed him the most was the contributions of the finalists’ spouses
– especially with regard to moral and loving support to their husbands. ‘In
the middle of one of the worst droughts I ever experienced in the Western
Transvaal we arrived on the farm of one of the participants one morning.
The farmstead looked like a sheep pen – the only patch of green was a bright
green piece of lawn approximately two metres by two metres against the
wall of the house.’ Later the evening Snyman asked the woman of the house
about this piece of lawn. She said that she took all the used dishwater and
laundry water and poured it onto this patch of grass below their bedroom
window. Her husband had the habit of looking out of the window when he
got up in the morning. She wanted to let him see something green before he
started his day.
There also was the youngish couple whom they visited. The wife told them
that she was a city girl who did not yet know much about farming. Her husband
invited the panel members to go and inspect the feedlots. Snyman said that at
one stage he looked back seeing how this city girl struggled to walk with them
through the feedlots – high heels and all. ‘What a lucky man,’ he pondered.
Sound bite: The image of the farmer had to be
improved – Mr Giel van Zyl.
Mr Giel van Zyl
Mr Hennie de Jager, Chairperson of NAMPO,
who was selected as the NAMPO Three
Ships Whisky Maize Man of the Year (1982),
Mr GreylingWentzel, Minister of Agriculture,
and Dr HO Gevers, who was selected Maize
Researcher of the Year (1982). Dr Gevers is
known for the important breakthrough that
he made with the development of the high-
lysine yellow maize hybrid.
