Barring of SA sheep exports will destroy us, Kuwaiti company says

The high court’s prohibition on the export of sheep until the middle of next month will cost Kuwaiti livestock export company Al Mawashi tens of millions of rands, which will drive it into liquidation and its holding company out of SA, the company claims in court papers.

Al Mawashi and its holding company, Livestock Transport and Trading Company (LTTC), are seeking to discharge or vary an interim high court order in terms of which it was prohibited from exporting by ship any live animals from SA shores to the Middle East.

Al Mawashi was planning to export 72,000 sheep on June 9. They have been quarantined since early last month at the Castledale Feedlot in Berlin.

The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) successfully sought the interim order preventing this or any other export until the middle of next month when the organisation will bring an urgent application to put a permanent stop to the export of live animals by sea — a practice it says is shockingly cruel and inhumane.

Al Mawashi says if it has to pay the R16m bill for feed and other maintenance costs of the 72,000 sheep in the feedlot between now and the middle of next month, as well as the cost of the ship Al Messilah, sitting in the East London harbour, it is likely to go belly up.

“Al Mawashi cannot afford this. It will drive Al Mawashi into liquidation and LTTC out of SA.”

The company is asking the court to discharge the order in its entirety. As an alternative, it is proposing a middle road.

It will settle for a variation on judge Ndumiso Jaji’s order in terms of which it can transport just 56,000 sheep to the

Middle East. If this is not permitted, it says it is unlikely to survive the losses it will suffer on this deal.

Al Mawashi and LTTC’s attorney, Henry van Breda, say in an affidavit that the company has spent about R139m on the deal to date.

This included R97m on purchasing livestock, R23m on feed, R3.2m on port and tariff charges, R1m on feedlot operational costs, and the balance on medication, tags, transport and veterinary services.

He says the company could not “dump” the 72,000 sheep back onto the local market.

This would have significant negative impact on the price, resulting in Al Mawashi suffering “unsustainable losses”.

Van Breda says even if it exported just 56,000 sheep the deal would run at a loss.

However, the company would at least survive and would not have to abandon its SA operations.

“Simply put, Al Mawashi cannot sustain the costs of feeding and caring for the sheep it made provision to export to the Middle East until July 16 2020.”

But the NSPCA’s Marcelle Meredith says Al Mawashi was simply raising technical points in a bid to have the interim order rendered null and void.

They knew they had little prospects of success because what they were proposing was cruel and inhumane, she said.

Meredith said in an affidavit that the NSPCA had done its best to ensure Al Mawashi would not suffer any financial prejudice. The NSPCA would not have had to apply for an urgent interim interdict to stop the export of the sheep if Al Mawashi had heeded dozens of requests to disclose to the NSPCA if or when it intended carrying out exports.

The government had assured the NSPCA all live exports were banned between last month and the end of August, and the first hint the NSPCA had that a shipment was imminent was early last month when thousands of sheep arrived at the Berlin feedlot.

Even then the company had refused to disclose if a shipment was due.

Meredith also expressed some cynicism that the collapse of the deal would be financially ruinous for the company, which had admitted it was a well-established player in a multimillion-rand industry operating on three continents.

She said the application was nothing more than a “second bite at the cherry”.

Al Mawashi’s application was due to be argued last Friday.

However, the company instead argued for Jaji to recuse himself.

Van Breda said it had been argued in court his strong findings against Al Mawashi leading up to the interdict against exporting the 72,000 sheep had created a perception he was biased against the company.

Jaji had agreed to recuse himself.

The matter is now due to be argued in the high court in Makhanda on Friday.