Astral in Standerton has decisive victory to intervene in Lekwa

Standerton managed to get on the map albeit for the wrong reasons when a radio presenter had an interview with the CEO of Astral Foods Limited, Mr Chris Schutte, after a court victory.

The company succeeded in obtaining a high court order against the national government.

Astral has the Goldi-factory in town, outside on the Leandra Road and is actively involved in the sporting community with regard to the cricket week for the youngsters and the Goldi Marathon.

This poultry producer sent an e-mail shortly after the court proceedings on 12 April, going back to the reasons for challenging service delivery in Standerton.

“A court order was successfully obtained in the Pretoria High Court against the national government and treasury in a matter where Astral fought against and challenged the non-delivery of basic services, faced by businesses and the community living within the Lekwa (Standerton) Municipality,” the statement read.

According to the company, the impasse with the municipality with regard to water and electricity supply has had a major disruptive impact on their operations within Standerton.

The negative impact on people living in town and surrounding areas is mentioned.

“The poor service delivery from the Lekwa Municipality is untenable and Astral decided to take extraordinary steps in launching legal proceedings against the provincial and national government to hold them accountable for the failures in municipal service delivery.”

Their operations were severely interrupted as far back as 2018 when a court order was obtained against Lekwa.

A long-term plan had to be submitted on how the municipal utility infrastructure would be repaired and improved.
Lekwa however, did not honour the court order.

It was ordered that the national government will now intervene, together with treasury, for a financial recovery plan to be prepared according to the Municipal Finance Management Act (56 of 2003).

A further provision was made that Astral can approach the court again should it be of the opinion that the recovery plan is not being implemented.

According to the statement, they are hopeful that this will not be necessary and that the parties will instead work together to turn the situation around in the interests of all stakeholders.

“We confirm our full support to the national government and treasury and look forward to co-operating further in the interests of resolving the very serious issues currently being faced by the Lekwa Municipality, and the impact that this is having on our operations and the community living and working in the area,” Mr Schutte concluded.

The Standerton Advertiser has been giving publicity to Goldi’s involvement in the community.

Water supply to the Concor-reservoir, which primarily supplies water to most areas around Kosmospark and Florapark, was affected in August last year and mechanical problems were experienced at the treatment works.

Goldi came to the rescue with a stationary water truck in Impala Street to service the community.

Mr Andy Crocker, former managing director of Astral’s poultry commercial business, commented on 28 May 2019 that a substantial ongoing under-supply of water has escalated, notwithstanding a permanent court order requiring the municipality to secure a minimum necessary supply.

Mr Gary Arnold, managing director of agriculture, then stated that in spite of active engagement with a number of stakeholders, cooperation from the municipality has not been forthcoming.

An attempt was made to mitigate any further cost impacts.

According to a press release in May 2019 from Mr Bosman Grobler, DA spokesman on finance and economic development in Mpumalanga, the company’s target was to slaughter 400 000 chickens daily and if they can’t do that due to water shortage/restrictions, employment rates would be impacted.

According to Mr Grobler, Goldi at that stage was only able to slaughter 200 000 chickens daily because of the water supply being halved.