Cane Supply Contracts Manager

Job Title: Cane Supply Contracts Manager

Reports to: Head of Cane Supply

Grade: LD2

Context/Scope
Tongaat Hulett has a proud 131-year history and a strong socio-economic legacy in KwaZulu-Natal province, in South Africa, as well as extending into sub-Saharan Africa. The company’s three RSA sugar mills are currently supplied by some 100,000 hectares. The productive performance, sustainability, and long-term personal relationships with this sector remain a strategic imperative for the company. In addition, it has made substantial investments in its own agricultural activities (farming an area of some 30,000 hectares leased from third parties on a direct or indirect basis) through partnering with commercial growers, rural communities, and independent specialist service providers to establish areas to cane. These initiatives comprise a myriad of commercial transactions on both freehold and communal land tenure, including: agricultural contracting agreements; horizontal and vertical cane expansion; development finance and loans; and subsidy arrangements.

Key Customers
Head of Cane Supply, Cane Supply Managers, Agricultural Services Manager, Land Reform & Small-Scale Grower Manager, Agric Operations Managers, Management Services Head, Out-Growers, Agricultural Service Providers (Share-Croppers, Farm Managing Agents & tenant farmers), SA Milling Ops (ad hoc), TH Property (ad hoc)

Location
Tongaat – Agric-Ops, with a requirement for ad hoc travel within the RSA cane supply catchment which extends up the KZN north coast, into Zululand and inland into the KZN midlands.

Purpose Of The Position
Recognizing the increased roles and responsibilities in the Company’s milling operations, the key purpose of this role is to generate appropriate bench strength and support to the Head of Cane Supply in the South African agricultural division as it relates to cane supply related contractual arrangements.

• Overall responsibility for drafting, managing, monitoring and providing relevant analysis of commercial arrangements associated with cane supply retention in the THSSA business.
• Contribute to the financial and operational optimization through contracts best practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Understand the complexity and strategic importance relating to retention and attraction of growers.
• Responsible for drafting, management, monitoring and providing relevant analysis of commercial arrangements associated with cane supply retention, including Cane Supply & Milling Agreements, Agricultural Leases, Sharecropping Agreements, Farm Management Agreements and other Agric Ops related agreements.
• Engagement with growers, Agric Ops teams and other internal stakeholders as it relates to aforementioned agreements.
• Collaboration with internal Group Legal team to maintain and continually enhance relevant agreement precedents.
• Deal with issues which stem from aforementioned agreements, including collaboration with internal Group Legal team and/or external legal advisors where applicable.
• Review and implement data management processes related to aforementioned agreements, including maintaining a logical filing system (both physical and electronic) and maintenance of the agreement database(s) and/or web-based contract management system.
• Handle audit queries related to aforementioned agreements and implement learnings from audit findings.
• Develop mechanisms to enable Agric operations team to monitor contractual performance.
• Recognize and respect the interface that exists with the Agricultural, Milling and Land Management operations and the need to interact on a formal and informal basis with these colleagues to provide relevant cane supply related contractual support and/or analysis.
• Work in a dynamic team environment, where there is a high-performance culture and an overlap of contractual, financial, commercial, operational and agronomic functions to execute the overall Company strategic objectives.
• Understand the organization’s milling objectives in the South African context and provide contractual support to Key Customers in line with those objectives.

Qualifications
BCom Law, or an applied economics or commercial degree with relevant experience in drafting and monitoring commercial contracts.

Experience

• 3+ years of relevant experience in drafting and managing commercial contracts with preference for sugarcane agriculture related experience.
• Sound understanding of best practice in agriculture and land tenure arrangements, together with knowledge and understanding of rural development and development economics.

Technical Competencies

• Strong contractual competence.
• Commercial acumen.
• Strong analytical and strategic aptitude.
• Possess a broad understanding of the complexities of RSA land tenure, and associated sensitivities with respect to government, commercial/land reform/communal growers, as well as the Company’s role in interfacing with multiple stakeholders.
• Knowledge and exposure to the sugar industry is advantageous.

Behavioral Competencies

• Results and detail-oriented.
• Independently motivated.
• A high level of integrity.
• Ability to work in a highly matrixed structure.
• Team player with a strong, confident and assertive personality - capable of influencing and persuading others as appropriate.
• Sensitivity towards the socio-political environments, ensuring that the agricultural operations and contracting arrangements recognize and are responsive to this reality.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, negotiation, and presentation skills.
• The ability to engage at an individual farmer level.

Closing date: 07 March 2025