26 Nov 2020

Chobe district council chairperson, Councillor Amos Mabuku has told the on-going full council meeting that about 12 249 samples were collected and no positive cases recorded during the  on-going active surveillance of COVID-19 in Kasane and Kazungula.

The active surveillance targets different places such as Kasane Primary Hospital, shopping malls, police station and the bus terminal so as to ascertain the prevalence of COVID-19 cases in the district.

Councillor Mabuku explained that the surveillance which started  on October 19 running up to December 31 with a weekly collection target of 77 samples was being implemented in collaboration with African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP).

He implored councillors to encourage the Kasane and Kazungula communities to participate in the exercise in order for it to achieve its objective.

Still on COVID-19, the chairperson said Chobe Regional Health Management Team had been screening and testing clients at Kazungula Ferry, Kazungula, Ngoma borders and all quarantine sites and by the end of October 15, 283 tests were processed.

He said from the samples, 229 tested positive and majority of cases were foreigners who were later repatriated to their countries of origin.

Councillor Mabuku said only 29 positive cases were attributed to the district; with a total of 25 recoveries and to date the district had four active cases with two in Kasane and the other two in other areas.

On the COVID-19 repercussions, Councillor Mabuku said the Chobe National Park was immensely affected hence the lowest number of tourists and revenue collection received.

He said the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) collected as little as P259 940 from April to date in comparison to close to P26 million during the same period last financial year.

On human-wildlife conflict, he noted that the department received 87 problem animal reports between July and September with 19 threats; nine non-compensatory while 59 were compensatory. Furthermore, he added that 13 reports were received in October and were still under assessment.

Councillor Mabuku said about P228 000 was paid to the affected farmers and the DWNP would continue to deploy officers in hot spots to minimise human wildlife conflict as well as reduce reaction time to reported cases as well as reduce waiting period for compensation of farmers.

On the district’s crop situation, Councillor Mabuku said during the 2019/20 cropping season, a total of 93 712 tonnes were produced by 682 small scale farmers and 47 commercial farmers.

He explained that from the production, 72 528 tonnes was cereal, 20 382.93 tonnes legumes, 627 tonnes oil crops, 100 tonnes fodder and 74.6 tonnes other crops. He said about 98 per cent of the total production was from the commercial farmers in Pandamatenga.

He further said the 2020/21 ploughing season had started and 767 subsistence farmers and 46 commercial farmers had registered under the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD).

He said the farmers would be assisted with inputs and draught power, while seeds had been received by the district and awaiting distribution.

He said since the districts experienced outbreak of African Migratory Locust, the farmers should be encouraged to plant crops not susceptible to locust infestation like legumes. Ends