09 May 2016

Some river bank farmers at Monarch North in the Francistown West Constituency have recently experienced every crop farmer’s biggest nightmare; that is livestock ravaging through crops and leaving nothing behind for the farmers to harvest.

In an interview with BOPA over the weekend, the three affected garden owners, Ms Siphelele Bakwinya, Ms Thapelo Moses and Ms Akanyang Seaparo stated that they were devastated by the destruction caused by some stray livestock in their gardens recently.

These gardens, which were allocated to them by the Francistown City Council (FCC), can be found on the Tati River banks from as far as Mmei Junior Secondary School to the old Francistown Stadium.

“I had high hopes of harvesting something this year but these cattle destroyed everything in my garden and I literally harvested nothing from this garden, so I am so heart-broken,” revealed Ms Bakwinya.

A tour of the three elderly women’s gardens revealed massive damage done by the stray cattle and all of the three gardens had been run through by the cattle after the thorn tree make-shift fencing was destroyed.

Crops such as maize, sweet reeds and sorghum had been damaged by the animals up to stem level and some uprooted completely.

Some few pumpkins had remained as well as few watermelons but most of these produce were either half-eaten or stepped into by the animals’ hoofs.

“Fearing more damage, we decided to pick up all the remaining left over crops like pumpkins to our homes in-case the stray cattle returned for some more. In my garden I only managed to recover only 15 pumpkins, while other crops were totally eaten and damaged by the roaming animals,” said Ms Seaparo.

In an effort to have their grievances addressed, the three farmers decided to report their troubles to the Monarch Customary Court President, Kgosi Gunny Moses.

In an interview, Kgosi Moses confirmed receiving a report from the three affected farmers regardingpertaining to some destruction caused by unknown cattle at their gardens.

Following that report, Kgosi Moses said he wrote a letter to the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) offices in Francistown requesting for help in identifying the affected cattle’s brand register which the three farmers had identified as ‘NS7’.

“Through the assistance of the Veterinary offices, the owner of the cattle was identified but numerous calls made to him from the kgotla have proved futile as his mobile phone is always off. I have therefore advised the three affected farmers to trace the cattle owner through some home-village address I gave them and that they should do so while the matter was still fresh,” Kgosi Moses said.

Furthermore, he noted that the issue of domestic animals in cities is a serious challenge as the animals were often the cause of many road accidents.

Kgosi Moses called all domestic animal owners to restrain their livestock if they intend keeping them in cities to avoid causing damage to other people’s property.

Traditionally, he said, when a person finds domestic livestock in his ploughing fields, having destroyed crops, that person has the right to restrain the animals until they locate the owner who would in-turn answer for the damages caused by his animals.

The case when reported, he stated, becomes a civil matter that normally attracts hefty fines, both monetary or the affected farmer rewarded with some of the livestock that destroyed their fields.ENDS