27 Oct 2020

Veld fires continue to be  a major  source of depletion of forest and range resources, says Tutume sub-district, District Development Officer(DOD), Ms Thato Mononi

Briefing Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Agriculture, Lands and Housing in Tutume recently, Ms Mononi said 1 752 hectares of rangeland were recently destroyed by veld fires in Tutume sub-district. 

She said in August, the sub-district experienced four veldt fires near Gweta and Nata and the outbreaks had caused an extensive damage of vegetation.

She applauded the residents of the two villages for the volunteerism spirit during the outbreak the fires.

“The spirit of volunteerism must be encouraged as it helps people to work towards a common goal for improvement of their lives,”she said. 

Ms Mononi also said the government had come with initiative to bowse water for wild animals at CT3 and CT2 boreholes in Nata and Gweta areas as one of the measures to control human and wildlife conflict.

Moreover, she said P1.7 million was used for compensation for damages caused by wild animals and another P1.7 million was still pending for compensation.

On other issues she said a total of 4 984 beneficiaries had been engaged in Ipelegeng in September of which 4 116 were females and 868 males.

 Still at the meeting, farmers committee representative, Mr Gosata Mosweu urged government to come with new measures to control human and wildlife conflicts.

Mr Mosweu said compensation fund should be rather used for long term solution, adding that the fund was currently useless as destruction continued which affected farmers as the compensation was not enough.

He also called upon government to come with measures to manage drought as drought is not a disaster.

He decried lack of consultation when declaring a  village within the grazing areas as that affected their livestock, and urged the government to implement land policy to control new settlement. Another farmer, Ms Thandie Gwamulumba said they were over taxed when selling their cattle to BMC as there was four per cent government levy and P35 tax for a slaughtered cow.

Meanwhile, the committee deputy chairperson, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang said the aim of the committee was to interact and bring Parliament closer to the constituents.

In addition, Dr Gobotswang their intention was to find out the challenges communities were facing regarding government policies and where possible address those challenges.

Dr. Gobotswang was accompanied by other committee members Messrs Barati Mathoothe, Taolo Lucas, Tshoganetso Leuwe, Christian Greef and Onneetse Ramogapi. Ends