The North West government has failed in two months to convince one of the biggest employers and largest cheese factory to halt its planned relocation from a town paralysed by poor service delivery and factional battles for power.
So steadfast was dairy company Clover in its plans to relocate from Lichtenburg to Queensburgh in KwaZulu-Natal that the provincial government failed to secure a single meeting with the company in two months during its efforts to persuade them to stay.
Production departments at the cheese factory are now being down-scaled, shut and relocated from the North West, with the fourth department set to relocate in just two weeks. The plant employs a total of 300 people, and 266 are directly affected by the relocation.
The move by the plant happens in the backdrop of political instability in the province which has seen premier Job Mokgoro ousted on Tuesday as toxic political infighting took centre-stage while community development is relegated to the back seat.
In June, Clover announced its plans to move its cheese factory to Queensburgh, near Durban, after poor road infrastructure and regular water and power outages made operations in Lichtenburg under the troubled Ditsobotla municipality very difficult.
Clover said at the time that the factory has been experiencing water and power outages, and the surrounding infrastructure has not been maintained by the municipality.
The local municipality has been rocked by ANC factional battles, which led to the collapse of service delivery and saw the appointment of 12 municipal managers, two administrators and two mayors in just five years.
Clover, speaking for the first time since making the relocation announcement, said on Tuesday that the process is already underway.
The company stated that the relocation of their “cheese production to Queensburgh was comprehensively considered and decided on several years ago and Clover remains firm in this decision with the move currently underway”.
“Clover management has engaged various government officials in this regard and is open to engage the North West government. A formal request has not yet been received at head office, however Clover has e-mailed the North West government to offer a meeting and is awaiting a response,” Clover said in response to Sowetan's inquiry.
“Clover is actively engaging with the affected employees to explore various options aimed at mitigating the effects of the move and remains committed to acting in the best interest of its collective stakeholders.”
North West MEC for agriculture and rural development Desbo Mohono, who was part of a provincial team appointed to intervene in the Clover relocation saga, said the provincial government has sought the intervention of the department of trade, industry and competition.
This came after efforts to meet management of Clover failed to yield positive results since June.
“Until they (Clover) sit with us in a meeting, we won’t have concrete evidence (about how their operations were affected)," Mohono said.
In June, Mohono promised Clover direct supply of power and water from a water board and Eskom. It’s not clear what became of the promise
The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said workers were offered a once-off R17,000 relocation allowance and two weeks' accommodation while searching for residence in Queensburgh.
Fawu spokesperson Dominique Martin said the relocation process is embarked upon on a phased approach until September next year.
“Some [workers] have relocated, some have chosen to stay behind."
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