06 Dec 2021

Preliminary findings of the cross-border livestock rustling affirm farmers’ concerns on many issues, Zimbabwe ambassador to Botswana said.

Ambassador Henry Mukonoweshuro conceded in an interview post a tour of crime hotspots on Saturday that many concerns corresponded with his findings.

“The tour today made us see what is happening on the ground; like areas where the fence is cut, the areas where the livestock cross through. There is a lot that has to be done in terms of increasing security on the other side of the border,” said Mr Mukonoweshuro.

He says that issues of joint patrols and communication between security personnel of both Botswana and Zimbabwe was ‘an urgent matter that needs to be done now.’

He said what the farmers were saying was true, as it corresponded with what he witnessed, adding that there was ‘definitely a link’ between farmers’ allegations  and his preliminary findings.

The ambassador also found the tour as an eye-opener to the concerns raised by farmers as regards lack of action and commitment from his country.

Mr Mukonoweshuro said livestock from the Zimbabwe side cross into Botswana, as they seek greener pastures.

During the tour, the police showed the entourage spots where Zimbabweans allegedly crossed illegally into Botswana, either for stealing various items or for shopping in Bobonong.

One such a spot is named N1, after a South African popular route. While the South African N1 route runs from Cape Town through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Polokwane to

Beit Bridge on the border with Zimbabwe, the N1 across Botswana/Zimbabwe border heads to Mabolwe and nearby villages.

We took off from Bobonong to the border at 6am, boy was it was a rocky terrain; a rollercoaster of some sort.

Our vehicles took steep nosedives into the rivers and rose sharply up the hills as we outmaneuvered the deep rivers and high hills, setting our inner organs into some discomfort.

Like cattle smugglers briskly driving their loot past Botswana cordon fence, leaving a trail of dust behind them, we stirred dust as our ten official vehicles stoked up the ground for the over 236km journey to the areas affected by the cross-border crime and back to the starting point.

However, the mission was not as interesting to the farmers as it was to the ambassador and his entourage. The livestock owners and those who lost theirs across the border, bore heightened expectations. They wished that as the dust stirred settled, so would the rampant cross-border crime.

In an endeavour to block foot and mouth disease, the government has erected a cordon fence between Botswana and Zimbabwe, which has now become the unofficial borderline, as the official one is the Shashe River.

However, the Zimbabwean side has no cordon fence. Worse, the border patrols are so infrequent that they cannot be ignored, at according to the Zimbabwean delegation.

As we drive along the border from Lenyetse 1 to Tuli Circle, we note some stretch of cut fence, in some instances the fence is down. Ends