The predicament of Astral Foods Limited’s Goldi factory in Standerton intensified the past week with the water interruptions.
On a smaller scale, the Standerton Advertiser has more than once described their plight and on a national scale, a radio presenter interviewed their CEO, Mr Chris Schutte in April.
A national financial publication also highlighted their situation the past week.
The company succeeded in obtaining a high court order against the national government.
Their e-mail after the court proceedings went back to the reasons for challenging service delivery in town.
According to the company, the checkmate position with the municipality with regard to water and electricity supply has had a major disruptive impact on their operations.
Astral took the decision to instigate legal proceedings against the provincial and national government and it was not the first time they went the legal route.
A court order was obtained against Lekwa in 2018.
It was ordered that a long-term plan had to be submitted on how the municipal utility infrastructure would be repaired and improved.
Lekwa did not honour the court order.
National government has now intervened, together with treasury, for a financial recovery plan to be prepared according to the Municipal Finance Management Act (56 of 2003).
Astral may approach the court again should they be of the opinion that the recovery plan is not being implemented.
They confirmed their full support to the national government and treasury, saying they look forward to co-operating further in the interests of resolving Lekwa’s issues.
An e-mail was sent to Mr Frans van Heerden, commercial managing director of Astral, last Friday.
Mr Van Heerden promptly replied and said Astral has 3 335 employees currently.
On the question of how how many chickens were slaughtered, he said they lost 60% of their production capacity the last two weeks.
“We slaughtered 950 000 chickens of the 1 845 000 we should have slaughtered last week,” he added.
“We need additional shifts to catch up on the production that we have lost due to not having electricity and water.
“At this stage we need to work six additional shifts, which will cost R4.5-million in additional expenses that we would not have incurred, if we had the water and electricity in the first place.”
He also said R50-million have been invested on a reverse osmosis water treatment facility, that supplies 2.5 mega litre of water per day or 50% of their water requirement.
“But without electricity, the plant can’t operate,” he concluded.
