Goldi’s future in the balance
The company only has a water supply for 12 hours which does not meet their 24-hour requirement and had to let go of part-time workers.
Astral Foods in Standerton faces a calamity of gigantic proportions.
The company only has water supply for 12 hours which does not meet their 24-hour requirement and had to let go of part-time workers.
Staff now carry on operations in one shift at one of the biggest employers in town.
Should the water supply problem not be resolved soon, an estimated 3 400 households could be without a breadwinner and about 50 chicken farms will have to close down.
Ms Sithi Silosini, DA PR counsellor deployed in Ward 3, first alerted the Standerton Advertiser, although publicity has been given in the past about their legal wrangle with the Lekwa Municipality.
The Eskom-debacle is still fresh in memory when they took the municipality to court after the power utility made its intentions clear of cutting off electricity in Standerton due to non-payment of the agreement.
Astral was successful and now pays Eskom directly.
According to a national daily, the CEO, Mr Chris Schutte, said the crisis inter alia stems from the recent loadshedding when reservoirs could not fill up.
Mr Schutte also said the municipality could supply 10 megalitre weekly in the past, but now supplies only seven megalitre with Astral themselves needing five megalitre daily, resulting in chickens having to be transported to other abattoirs.
According to Astral, their top brass, representatives from the government’s agency regarding municipal infrastructure and the executive of Lekwa had a meeting on Wednesday, 22 May at 11am to decide on a way forward.
Astral management was in a conference regarding the problem on Friday, 24 May and the newspaper could not establish the outcome at the time of going to press.
