{"id":108,"date":"2026-05-10T10:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T10:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soil.thepeaksfoundation.org\/?page_id=108"},"modified":"2026-05-10T11:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:00:59","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/?page_id=108","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Soil Science Society of South Africa<\/strong> was founded on the 27 th of April 1953 in Pretoria. The founder members were: Dr C R van der Merwe, Prof. JJ Theron, Prof. ER Orchard, Prof. WJ L\u00fctjharms, Dr J van Garderen, Dr CP Naud\u00e9, Miss I Sichel, Mr AV Betts, Mr P v.d M Bruwer, Mr GM Ferreira, Mr PA Louw, Mr H Klintworth, Mr G Murray, Mr MS Steyn, Mr FJ Rosenstrauch and Mr DJR van Dyk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miss Sichel, who passed away in Pretoria in 2002, was the last surviving SSSSA founder member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr van der Merwe was elected as the first President of the Society. The full list of SSSSA Presidents is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1953-58<\/td>Dr CR van der Merwe<\/td>1958-63<\/td>Prof. JJ Theron<\/td><\/tr>
1963-65<\/td>Prof. W J F\u00f6lscher<\/td>1965-70<\/td>Dr J van Garderen<\/td><\/tr>
1970-73<\/td>Prof. ER Orchard<\/td>1973-75<\/td>Prof. AA Theron<\/td><\/tr>
1975-78<\/td>Dr MCF du Plessis<\/td>1978-81<\/td>Prof. JM de Villiers<\/td><\/tr>
1981-83<\/td>Prof. R du T Burger<\/td>1983-84<\/td>Dr CN MacVicar<\/td><\/tr>
1984-86<\/td>Prof. RO Barnard<\/td>1986-87<\/td>Prof. ATP Bennie<\/td><\/tr>
1987-89<\/td>Prof. MC Laker<\/td>1989-90<\/td>Dr DM Scotney<\/td><\/tr>
1990-92<\/td>Mr JJN Lambrechts<\/td>1992-94<\/td>Dr AJ van der Merwe<\/td><\/tr>
1994-96<\/td>Mr HM du Plessis<\/td>1996-98<\/td>Prof. JH Moolman<\/td><\/tr>
1998-99<\/td>Prof. CC du Preez<\/td>1999-2001<\/td>Dr JJ Bornman<\/td><\/tr>
2001-03<\/td>Prof. L van Huyssteen<\/td>2003-05<\/td>Dr JF Eloff<\/td><\/tr>
2005-07<\/td>Mr DG Paterson<\/td>2007-09<\/td>Dr JE Hoffman<\/td><\/tr>
2009-11<\/td>Dr CW van Huyssteen<\/td>2011-13<\/td>Dr DP Turner<\/td><\/tr>
2013-15<\/td>Dr PAL le Roux<\/td>2015-17<\/td>Dr R van Antwerpen<\/td><\/tr>
2017-19<\/td>Dr JJ Botha<\/td>2019-21<\/td>Mr M du Plessis<\/td><\/tr>
2021-23<\/td>Prof JJO Odhiambo<\/td>2023-25<\/td>Prof J van Tol<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
History of SSSSA<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Information and reminiscences by G Laker<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Soil Science Society of South Africa was founded on the 27 th of April 1953 in Pretoria. The founder members were: Dr C R van der Merwe, Prof. JJ Theron, Prof. ER Orchard, Prof. WJ L\u00fctjharms, Dr J van Garderen, Dr CP Naud\u00e9, Miss I Sichel, Mr AV Betts, Mr P v.d M Bruwer, Mr GM Ferreira, Mr PA … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-108","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/108\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/soils.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}