“Even though Astral had submitted written representations to Eskom setting out the reasons why the proposed disconnection of electricity would cause catastrophic damage, not only to Astral’s Meadow Feeds business but other businesses that operate in the Rand West local municipality, Eskom persisted with its intention to consider a disconnection. In the circumstances, Astral was left with no alternative but to approach the court for relief,” Schmitz said.

Astral said it decided to apply for the interdict after Eskom said on October 15 it would exercise its right to disconnect the supply of electricity to the municipality. The Johannesburg high court ruled in the company’s favour.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of R8.65bn, said Eskom was supposed to have commenced with the disconnection on November 27.

“We are satisfied with the order preventing Eskom from interrupting the electricity supply to our animal feed mill in Randfontein and remain of the opinion that we, the paid-up consumers of electricity, should not be penalised for the inefficiencies and corruption prevalent within the local municipalities,” said Astral CEO Chris Schutte.

Schutte said the dependency on Eskom for power supply is “unhealthy” and the repeated threats to interrupt supply affect Astral negatively.