••••
NEW S
Senwes’ Young Farmer
hosts Nation in Conversation
Senwes Chairman,
Danie Minnaar
addressing the
crowd at the 13th
Senwes Future
Focus Day at
Nampo Park.
THE NEXT SEASON OF THE GROUND-BREAKING SERIES
NATION IN CONVERSATION, THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR
CHAT SHOW INITIATED BY SENWES, GOT UNDERWAY ON
13 SEPTEMBER 2016 AT NAMPO PARK NEAR BOTHAVILLE.
AUBREY KRUGER AND
MARLON ABRAHAMS
T
Vrystaat Agriculture Young
Framer of the Year, DJ van
der Linde discussed family
dynamics.
Theo Vorster, CEO of Galileo
Capital once again filled the
position of anchor.
20
he first episode of the new
series, which will be broadcast on various television platforms
from January 2017, saw several
industry experts and producers
discuss the engaging topic of Family Farm Businesses.
The discussion formed part
of Senwes’ Young Farmer Future
Focus conference, aimed at creating a networking and discussion
platform for young farmers. The
event celebrated its 13th year this
year and was well-attended by almost 300 farmers, young and not
so young.
Participants in the first session,
which looked at the importance of
family businesses in general within
the South African economy and
specifically in the agri-sector, included Senwes Group CEO Francois Strydom, Andre Diederichs,
founder of FABASA (Family Business Association of South Africa),
PricewaterhouseCooper’s Hendrik
Wessels and the series host was
once again Theo Vorster, CEO of
Galileo Capital.
The second session looked at
the practical implications of family
businesses in terms of creating a
balance between business principles and family dynamics. The
OCT/NOV 2016 • SENWES Scenario
discussion panel for this session
included producer Anton Botha
and his son Heinrich from the farm
McGrath in the Bultfontein district;
DJ van der Linde, Free State Young
Farmer of the Year winner and
Gerhard Bruwer, Grain SA Senior
Manager and one of three brothers
who are members of the Genade
Boerdery.
FABASA’s Andre Diederichs
said there were three fundamental
challenges in the successful management of a family business. “It
is critically important to have a
clear structure of the business with
regards to who is responsible for
what; secondly you have to have
a constitution to which everyone
involved have to be consensual signatories - this ensures that everyone
conforms to the same norms, values
and understanding of the business
principles; and finally the succession
planning has to be clear. Issues like
do we allow non-blood relatives in
to the frame of succession planning
and how to provide for pensions
have to be discussed and agreed
upon,” said Andre.
The panel agreed that the main
ingredient for succession planning
should be the ability and willingness of the fu