GOOD Statement by Thyrone Williams,
GOOD Saldanha Bay Councillor
12 May 2023
The GOOD Party stands with the community of St Helena Bay who faces possible job cuts due to increasingly harsh licensing conditions being placed on a local fish factory.
The well-known Lucky Star factory in Stompneus Bay has been around for 50 years and employs about 1000 workers from the surrounding neighbourhoods.
However, a sudden change in the operating and production license conditions could see this local job source fast becoming a thing of the past.
It’s alleged that the changes follow complaints from a small group, based at the near-by Shelley Point Country Club & Golf Course, about the smell coming from the factory.
The community, on the other hand, believes that the new requirements being imposed by the Municipality are unreasonable and could possibly lead to forced retrenchments. This includes a reduced catching and processing period which is impractical and unsustainable.
None of the other similar factories in the region are facing the same new stringent new conditions.
Today concerned residents gathered for a peaceful march to the West Coast District Municipality to handover a memorandum of demands for the new conditions to be scrapped.
It’s unacceptable that the factory could be forced to let workers go because of a small group of people who seem to have the ear of the right official.
The majority of the residents in surrounding neighborhoods are in favour of the factory and its continued existence as part of the community.
Unemployment is rampant across South Africa, and the impact of this ever-increasing statistic is evident in this already struggling community.
Media Enquiries:
Thyrone Williams, GOOD Saldanha Bay Councillor
Cell: 0734276308
Email: wthyrone@gmail.com
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za