Background
Jacobus was born on November 30, 1918, in the then Tanganyika.
Jacobus was born on November 30, 1918, in the then Tanganyika.
Sent from school to South Africa where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture at Stellenbosch University.
After a period as a university lecturer at Stellenbosch he returned to farm in Tanzania. He was appointed to the Tanzania Pig Board and served on a dairy cooperative.
On leaving East Africa in 1955 he bought a farm near Bredasdorp, 100 miles east of Cape Town. He was in politics inside a year as MP for Swellendam. A year later he was elected to the Bredasdorp Nationalist Party Executive. An eager questioner on agricultural matters in Parliament he was brought into government in the July 1972 reshuffle.
Tanzania-born farmer who did not settle in South Africa until he was 37. Not a great orator on a public platform but as a university lecturer in agriculture and an expert in rearing pigs in East Africa and South Africa he has established himself as a man whom the farming community can trust.