Looted chicken farm leads to job losses

After the looting of about R1.2m worth of stock which resulted in the permanent closure of the Hofina Poultry Shop outside Newcastle, residents of Madadeni say life hasn’t been the same.

According to a statement accompanying the police docket opened at the Madadeni police station, looters from the township and surrounding areas broke into the shop on July 12, 2021, vandalised it and stole about 10,000 chickens, 25,000 eggs, 500 sheep and 700 goats. The value of the damage was estimated at R1.2m.

Soon after that, representatives of the almost 50-year-old company announced on Facebook that it would be shutting its shop in Madadeni’s Section 3 for good and moving to its other site 14km away on the other side of Newcastle.

When the Sunday Times visited Hofina’s Madadeni farm, the only employee who appeared to have remained behind was security guard Mphikeleli Mnculwane. Most of the others had been transferred.

Asked how life had changed for the employees, he said: “The employees used to get here at 7.30am and leave at 3pm because they are all from Section 3. Now they travel to the new location using a bus which arrives at 6am and brings them back at 4pm, and that has been an unpleasant change.

“After the looting, four people lost their jobs, one of them a permanent employee and the other three temporary workers.”

A man who took part in the looting of the farm, who asked not to be named, said the community had "sabotaged itself".

“It does hurt that they (Hofina) moved to a new location because we used to get temporary jobs and feed our families,” he said.

“Now we cannot afford transport money to get there because we don’t get paid a lot of money and those jobs were just temporary. We were also able to buy some of the rejected eggs that they sold at R1 per egg. Now the shops in this area sell eggs at R2.50 each.”

Other looters TimesLIVE interviewed said no specific reason motivated their actions, they just followed others.

Another self-confessed looter said the people who began the looting of Hofina were simply criminals.

“There are a lot of criminals in this section and they saw a chance to go about their criminal activities in broad daylight,” he said.

“I now realise that it was wrong to loot but I could not stay behind while others helped themselves to free chicken. But now that chicken is gone, and so are our temporary jobs”.

A case was opened at the Madadeni police station, but no arrests have been made.

A police officer, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said investigations were ongoing and no goods had been recovered because the stolen items were “perishable”.

Hofina declined to comment for this article, saying by text message that its director was on leave and comment would be provided on his return. None was forthcoming.

* Buthelezi is a second year student in the Durban University of Technology's journalism programme