The fate of the 12 000 chickens that survived on the Kharishume Poultry Farm was confirmed this week. They were “processed in the normal course, as they were not sick and there was nothing wrong with them.”

Rainbow Farm Chickens, the national company for whom the chickens were intended, confirmed this.

The Zoutpansberger reported last week on Kharishume after some 19 000 chickens suffocated on the farm. According to the owner of the farm, Mr Tumelo Siliga, the chickens, which were kept in an enclosed coop, suffocated when the back-up generator that was supposed to power the ventilation fans failed during a power outage on 8 March.

Kharishume, which is situated along the Madombidza road, south of Makhado, is a contract grower for Bush Valley Farms in Tzaneen. A spokesperson for Rainbow Chickens, Mr Stephen Heath, confirmed this week that Bush Valley is owned by Rainbow Farms.

According to him, Rainbow is helping Bush Valley to develop by assisting them to learn about proper poultry farming practices. Bush Valley, in turn, sub-contracted the growing of the chickens to Kharishume.

This, said Heath, will not happen again until Rainbow Farms is satisfied that Kharishume has put the proper equipment and procedures in place. “There is nothing that needs to be done with Bush Valley's processing plant as this was not where the issue arose,” Heath said in an e-mail on Tuesday.