NSPCA culls 200k starving chicks at state-owned Daybreak as chicken producer struggles to pay workers
News24 reports that workers at Daybreak's facilities in Limpopo say they're on strike because of non-payment of salaries.
Conditions being checked at a Daybreak farm. Image: NSPCA
The Money Show's Stephen Grootes is joined by Sunday Times investigative reporter Sabelo Skiti.
State-owned chicken producer Daybreak is considering going into business rescue, reports News24.
This comes after the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) reported it was forced to cull around 200,000 starving birds at a Daybreak contract grower.
The birds were apparently without feed for days, resulting in mass cannibalism.
The Council reports that Daybreak Foods officially informed it on 1 May that they were no longer able to supply feed and authorised the NSPCA to dispose of the chickens.
'Effectively abandoning the birds to starvation, Daybreak cited financial collapse as its reason for ceasing operations.'
In a statement released on Wednesday, the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) said it's 'deeply disturbed' by these reports and outlined the action it's taking.
"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."
Public Investment Corporation
Stephen Grootes interviews Sunday Times investigative journalist Sabelo Skiti, who's been reporting on the situation at Daybreak now for a few years.
According to Skiti, money was siphoned out of Daybreak Farms by people and companies linked to the PIC’s company secretary Bongani Mathebula.
"A couple of years ago we told you about how a board that had been appointed to oversee Daybreak, which included a senior employee of the PIC, being the sole owner of this business, had basically gone rogue. They got rid of the management team that had turned that business around."
Sabelo Skiti, Investigative Journalist - Sunday Times
"They hounded these executives out in an attempt to basically wrest control of the company and then do what always happens with the state-owned companies, just beginning a whole looting exercise."
Sabelo Skiti, Investigative Journalist - Sunday Times
Skiti says they managed to take about R150 million out of the company without following any sort of due process.
The PIC has been the greatest disappointment for him in terms of this ongoing saga, Skiti says.
"Again, the PIC continue to make a case for us to ask: Why is this fund manager given over R2.6 trillion of what is essentially civil servants' retirement money, when they show the sort of disdain that they've shown in this Daybreak case?"
Sabelo Skiti, Investigative Journalist - Sunday Times
To hear more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article