Witvlei — Desperate residents of Witvlei and other parts of the Omaheke Region on Wednesday this week signed a petition demanding the continued operation of the embattled privately owned Witvlei Meat abattoir.
This action took place during a meeting of some 350 producers and residents with chairperson of Witvlei Meat, Sydney Martin, and managing director Hendri Bahenhorst on the future of the abattoir after its export quota to Norway for 2014 was cut from 800 tonnes to 300 tonnes. Witvlei Meat has already produced and shipped 250 tonnes of beef to Hamburg in Germany where it was kept in cold storage in anticipation of the quota allocation for 2014. Martin and Badenhorst threw open the company's books by allowing access to all present, saying Witvlei Meat has nothing to hide while Martin called allegations of the company enriching just a few shareholders a "bunch of blatent lies".
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