16 Jun 2019

 An official from Department of Surveys and Mapping has encouraged people living along the border line to know the boundaries between countries in order to avoid trespassing.

Mr Cornelius Kaiser made these remarks during a tour of the Botswana and South African border line by South East District officials on June 14.

He said border lines were often marked by beacons agreed by two countries as well as navigable channels of the rivers.

Therefore, he made a call to the leadership to sensitise the community about the boundary lines, emphasising that the animal movement control fences between countries were not necessarily boarder fences.

In fact, he said beacons, which were in most cases 50 metres apart from each other, were used to determine the border line.

Therefore, he said the space between the animal movement control fences of different states were not necessarily border lines but they were meant to control movement of animals.

Furthermore, Mr Kaiser said fences were meant to control the movement of domesticated animals while wild animals moved freely, adding that where there were elephants there was normally no fences.

He also stated that it was necessary to have patrol paths between nations for the safety of the people along the border and the nation.

However, Mr Kaiser conceded that there were farms with boundaries along the line making it impossible to have patrol lines. 

He, however, said government continued to engage such people to allow for construction of the patrol lines.

For his part, Tlokweng MP, Mr Masego Segokgo said lack of maintenance of the animal patrol movement fences along the country had direct impact on the lives of the people living along the border line.

He said in South East, farmers had to pay hefty prices to South Africa authorities if their cattle happened to stray into that country.

MP Segokgo said in some cases, farmers ended up failing to get back their cattle as the charges were sometimes too steep.

Therefore, he said the maintenance of the fences would be of great benefit to the communities living alone the border line.

The tour, which was attended by various government departments, from the district was organised by the council to keep councillors abreast on the status of the border between the two countries and how it is maintained. Ends