Cannibal chickens, collapsed farm: Daybreak Foods majority shareholder Kholofelo Maponya speaks out...
Starving birds turned on each other at a Mpumalanga poultry farm. Now former owner Kholofelo Maponya and the PIC are blaming each other.
- 702 Breakfast with Bongani Bingwa
- Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)
- Bongani Bingwa
Conditions being checked at a Daybreak farm. Image: NSPCA
702's Bongani Bingwa is joined by Kholofelo Maponya, Chairperson at Matome Maponya Investments.
Listen below:
Like a scene from a horror movie... A poultry farm in Mpumalanga where starving chickens turned cannibal, attacking and eating one another.
This was the scene uncovered at Daybreak Foods, a state-funded agribusiness near Delmas, where over a million birds suffered extreme neglect and mismanagement.
Now, former majority shareholder Kholofelo Maponya is speaking out.
He blames the Public Investment Corporation (PIC)for the collapse, which, in turn, blames Matome Maponya Investments (MMI).
"We had nothing to do with this horrific incident. We are shocked and willing to assist and repair the problem."
- Kholofelo Maponya, Chairperson - Matome Maponya Investments
Last month, the PIC said in a statement:
"The board and management of Daybreak are responsible and accountable for the operations and finances of the company. The PIC continues to support Daybreak and has provided capital allocations to provide liquidity to the company, for the board and management to stabilise the business."
Maponya says that while Matome Maponya Investments initially welcomed the financial support from the PIC, the partnership quickly soured.
"Little did we know that they would then want to come and run the company themselves."
- Kholofelo Maponya, Chairperson - Matome Maponya Investments
Maponya claims that when MMI came on board, Daybreak was not profitable and was under-performing.
"We bought it to turn it around."
- Kholofelo Maponya, Chairperson - Matome Maponya Investments
The PIC claims MMI was defaulting within a couple of years of a massive cash injection, and that warnings to the leadership fell on deaf ears.
"You cannot operate a company without working capital. We were set up to fail..."
- Kholofelo Maponya, Chairperson - Matome Maponya Investments
Scroll up to listen to the full interview.