SA’s largest chicken producer, Astral, is investing in turbine  generators at its Standerton chicken processing plant and applying to access river water to become more independent of the Lekwa municipality, which has failed to provide it with adequate services even after it won a court battle with it.

The chicken producer that slaughters 6-million chickens a week faced such severe power and water cuts that it hauled the Lekwa municipality in Mpumalanga to the high court in 2020. In April 2021, it won a judgment that forced the municipality to draw up a financial plan detailing Eskom repayments and financial management...