Chief Executive Officers Mr D J C Malan (1923-1944) The late Mr D J C Malan was the official General Manager of OTK. Born on May 19, 1887 in Pretoria, after which he was bank clerk, later miller and finally settled as a farmer in 1911 on the farm Goedehoop, in the Bethal district. Like David of old, he was called from being shepherd to kingship, so he was called from the plough to become leader of a farmers’ organisation, which grew under his authority to one of the powerful and prestigious co-operatives in South Africa. Mr J N Swart (1944-67) Jacobus Nicolaas Swart was born on the 6th of October 1906 on the farm Brakforntein in the district of Standerton. After the passing away of his mother on 28 November 1906, his paternal grandparents took him to their home in the Bethal district and brought him up. Up to and including standard 4, he attended a farm school in the Bethal district and for standard 5 and 6 he attended Bethal Primary School. In 1924 he matriculated at Hoogenhout High School. At that time, job opportunities were scarce and after he was helpful for the first six months of 1925 on the farm, he was appointed junior clerk at the headquarters of the Eastern Transvaal Agricultural Co-operative Society. The designation of “General Manager” was changed from October 27, 1943 to “Chief Executive Officer”, and from 1 May 1944 he was appointed second Chief Executive Officer of the co-operative with his appointment as Chief Executive Officer [later on]. Mr D J C Malan, founding member of OTK and also first officer was General Manager until 1944. He passed away shortly after this. This post he occupied with great distinction for the rest of his term on 31 March 1967 following the arrival of his retirement. Mr D C de Wet 1967Dirk Cornelis de Wet was born on 9 January 1924 in the Ermelo district. His parents settled later on the family farm, Sukkelaar, in the Bethal district. He received schooling at Bekkersdal Primary School and Hendrikspan, and Matriculated in 1941 at the Hoogenhout High School of Bethal. In December the same year, he served as a junior clerk in the service of Voortrekkerswinkels (Koӧp) Bpk . With his retirement in 1952, he had already served several years as secretary of the business and later settled on farming in the area of Kiepersol in the East-Transvaal Lowveld. In June 1953 he went to serve at OTK as Personnel and Board’s Clerk, and was promoted in October the same year, as Secretary/Personnel Manager. On 1 February 1954 he was promoted to General Secretary and he also became a member of the Board of Directors. After the retirement of the General Secretary in 1960, the two secretary’s positions were combined into one, and were handled by Mr De Wet in the capacity of Secretary. On 1 January 1967 he became Co-Chief The first Chairman of OTK the late Mr Nollie Smith served from 5 April 1923 to 26 August 1926 in this capacity. Executive Officer and with the resignation of J N Swart, he was promoted to Chief Executive Officer on 1 April 1967. With the reorganisation of OTK’s management in 1979, Mr De Wet was promoted to Senior Chief Executive Officer. 86
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