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Agri SA highlights equal importance of transformation, profitability

Agri SA highlights equal importance of transformation, profitability

Photo by Duane Daws

5th May 2015

By: Tracy Hancock

Creamer Media Contributing Editor

  

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Performance and delivery on labour and land reform matters were equally important to lowering the cost of doing business and improved profitability, and were central if the agriculture sector’s growth and contributions were to be sustained, stressed Agri SA president Johannes Möller.

As such, Agri SA had decided to strengthen its capacity at executive level, where its focus would be on commercial issues that affected the viability and profitability of the sector, and the developmental and social aspects that were relevant in the transformation debate. 

Agri SA announced on Monday that it had appointed Omri van Zyl designate executive director, Christo van der Rheede deputy executive director responsible for developmental and social aspects relevant to the transformation of the sector, and Thabi Nkosi senior economist, having joined Agri SA on May 1 to fill the vacancy left by Dawie Maree.

“Agri SA is at the forefront of policy developments, which pave the way for the future of the sector. These appointments bear testimony to our conviction that agriculture has a bright future, but that it also requires from us to constructively engage with others and contribute towards solutions that are required to fulfil our expectations. I want to welcome these appointees into our organisation and wish them well in serving this organisation and the agricultural sector,” said Möller.

He highlighted that farmers had identified issues such as the labour market, land reform, the cost of doing business, market access and safety and security as major challenges to the sustainability of their farming operations in a recent survey undertaken by Agri SA, a federation of agricultural organisations.

“The challenges faced by the [agriculture] sector are diverse and in a global trade, financial and digital environment, high-level skills are required to understand emerging challenges and, even more so, contribute towards solutions which will enhance the prospects of the sector and of those who work in it. 

“What is also evident, is that the so-called soft issues – which are more than often complex challenges – have become of increasing importance to the wellbeing of the [agriculture] sector,” Möller said at a media briefing on Monday.

These soft issues included training, social development, conditions of employment and transformation, which had many facets. Apart from the human resources aspect, transformation encompassed land reform, farmer development and broad-based black economic empowerment.

Möller noted that although Agri SA and its affiliates had done a lot to accelerate transformation, it had committed towards achieving even higher standards and contributions, as mandated by the organisation’s 2014 congress. 

Agri SA had in the past two years assessed the changing circumstances, conditions and challenges facing the sector and embarked on a process to realign the organisation with these new realities.

“We noted the need to improve our communication with various stakeholders, which is necessary to cultivate an environment conducive for the policies we are pursuing,” Möller explained.

Agri SA was also working “extremely hard” on policy processes with other business organisations and those in agriculture to achieve high levels of consensus, which it deemed a precondition for success.

Möller further highlighted that the organisation made best use of professional advice to guide it on issues it wanted to deliberate with business and government, and its interaction in regional and global fora where agricultural, trade, environmental and labour matters were discussed.

Agri SA also advised on best practice for farmers who wanted to apply sustainable approaches with regard to the social upliftment of workers and their families, as well as on models for land reform.

The organisation worked closely with the security and safety structures of government to enhance rural safety and give support to rural communities, ensuring time and effort was spent on securing the safety of families and farming enterprises.

Further, access to safe and affordable water and the protection of natural resources as the foundation of South African farmer’s livelihoods, posed continued challenges, added Möller, adding that Agri SA had focused a considerable amount of time and effort on improving the cost of doing business in agriculture, risk mitigation and disaster relief.

“These challenges require a spectrum of skills and expertise if we want to monitor, evaluate and meaningfully contribute towards policies and services which will be conducive to a growing and flourishing sector. Agri SA has for a number of years already invested in expert human capital to deliver on these challenges,” Möller advised.

An example of this investment was visible in Agri SA’s present executive director, Hans van der Merwe, who had contributed greatly to the sector and would be retiring at the end of November from the position he had held since 2002.

The organisation’s general council approved the new structure aimed at strengthening Agri SA’s executive capacity at a stage when the succession planning process had started with regard to Van der Merwe’s retirement.

BACKGROUND ON APPOINTMENTS
Van Zyl, who would take up the position of designate executive director on July 1, was presently a senior associate at Deloitte heading up the Deloitte Africa Agribusiness Unit and Business Development for Deloitte Consulting in Africa.

He had also been the lead director in a multitude of agricultural consulting projects, with Möller stating that and he was widely considered as a strategic expert in agro-investments, business process re-engineering and turnaround management, food security and poverty alleviation.

Van Zyl currently held a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law from the University of Stellenbosch, an LLB from the University of the Free State and an MBA from University of Pretoria.

Van der Rheede, who would take up the position of deputy executive director on August 1, was presently the CEO of the Afrikaans Handels Instituut. 

“He is highly experienced in operating membership organisations and has a wide network of national and international economic role-players.  He was actively involved in the development and implementation of programmes aimed at transforming institutions,” notes Möller.

His most recent focus was to inspire the leadership of business chambers and to find local solutions for local problems.

“Considering similar challenges in agriculture, these attributes will be of great value to Agri SA, also to make best use of the synergies between agriculture and related business organisations,” added Möller.

Van der Rheede currently held a higher diploma in education from the Western Cape College of Education, a BA degree from the University of the Western Cape, and a honours B and master’s degree in public administration from Stellenbosch University.

Nkosi, who had already started as senior economist at Agri SA, was a qualified agricultural economist, the top BSc student at the University of Pretoria in 2007, and was currently completing her MSc in agriculture at the university. The topic of dissertation was ‘The relationship between public spending patterns and job creation in the South African agricultural sector’.  

While at the university, Nkosi was a member of the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy and served as an intern at Agbiz. She subsequently spent time at Santam Agriculture as a business consultant and as the South African Sugar Association national market manager. From 2010, Nkosi also worked as an economist for the office of the Auditor-General’s performance auditing component, where she progressed to senior manager in charge of research and development.

Möller also noted that Johan Pienaar would continue to serve as Agri SA deputy executive director responsible for the organisation’s commercial and economic cluster of activities. 

“His expert knowledge on macroeconomic issues, trade, industrial policy and administered prices is widely known and highly appreciated.  His institutional knowledge will continue to be of great value to Agri SA and his colleagues at executive level,” Möller pointed out.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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