23 Feb 2023

People who survive by harvesting mophane worms have been advised to form cooperatives and package their product in order to find a better market.

Officially opening the ongoing Selebi Phikwe Town Council (SPTC) full council meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Lucas Modimana said due to abundance of mophane worm in Selebi Phikwe and surrounding areas, local market was saturated.

“Those who are not able to sell in South Africa end up selling with give-away prices and by so doing their economic status will not change,” he said.

Mr Modimana urged councillors to help the community to find a better market for the time being, while they also encourage them to form a cooperative where they would package it in different forms and quantities and sell for a better price.

“They can also include other veld products to keep their cooperative alive during phane off- season,” said Mr Modimana.

Having a cooperative, he said, would also enable harvestors to raise their concerns with government with one voice and also help them find assistance from financial institutions.

Furthermore, he indicated that the Department of Forestry and Range Resources had a statutory responsibility to formulate legal instruments to ensure conservative and sustainable utilisation of forest and range resources.

However, he said the department was facing challenges of illegal harvesting of the resource and environmental pollution at harvesting sites. 

Though a lot of people had harvested Mophane worm, he said most of them did it illegally as only 141 permits were issued to 37 individuals.

 “These included 57 harvesting permits, 64 dealers’ permits and 14 export permits.” 

“I implore the House to encourage our community to do their businesses legally by obtaining permits and also encourage them to keep the environment clean, especially at harvesting sites.”

On other issues, Mr Modimana informed councillors that the council continued to execute extensive health inspections in food premises as an endeavour to protect health of the community.

He said unsafe food commodities had been a human health problem since history was first recorded and the occurrence of food borne diseases remained a significant health issue in communities, adding that food safety and good hygiene practices were essential to ensure that the food that the community ate was safe.

The council had in the process temporarily closed non-complying food premises while appealing to business owners, especially high-risk premises to comply with health requirements. ENDS