The benchmark December white maize futures eased about 1 percent to 843.40 rand - about 2.6 percent weaker on last Friday's closing levels.
December yellow maize finished 0.6 percent lower on the day at 775 rand. "The price was down today because of forecasts for rain over the Free State. But it didn't fall too much because of the weak rand," said one local trader.
The rand has eased about 1.5 percent this week, hitting 3-month lows. On Friday at midday it was steady at 6.7045/dlr, not far off a 3-month low of 6.74/dlr scraped on Thursday.
For the past month or so the December contract has been in a range of between roughly 800 and 890 rand a tonne as the market attempts to guage the real size of the 2005 harvest and how much farmers plan to plant this year.