25 Jun 2026

North East District Council chairperson Mr Mbaakanyi Smart says since the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease (FMD), communities from different villages have been engaged on maintenance of cattle crushes and cordon fences along the borderline.

Addressing a full council session on Monday, Mr Smart said the 134 Ikageng beneficiaries had been engaged on rotational basis in maintenance of cordon fence and cattle crushes.

He said this was done in partnerships with Mephato formed in the villages to fight cross border crime and management of livestock movement.

However, Mr Smart stated that FMD outbreaks in Disease Control Zones 6b and 3c has been successfully suppressed and the second round of vaccination which was scheduled for mid-June in 6b South of Bisoli and within a 40-kilometre radius of the Botswana-Zimbabwe border, has been temporarily delayed due to technical challenges.

Furthermore, he indicated that vaccines were received on the 19 th of June and that vaccination was expected to resume in the coming weeks.

“Despite this, some restrictions like social slaughter in Zone 3b and 6a have since been lifted and local slaughter at licensed facilities was permitted in Zone 6a only,” he said.

Regarding Lemang Dijo, he said the uptake of the initiative in the past ploughing season was not satisfactory due to the late launch of the programme, adding that draught power service providers

were reluctant to participate in the programme because of the provision of one-hectare subsidy per farmer.

Tractor service providers expressed dissatisfaction towards the rather stringent eligibility criteria that was employed.

Highlighting on the issue of land allocation, he said all planned layout projects had been completed and forwarded to Tati Land Board for surveying and allocation, adding that the spatial framework for villages expansion and the 25 000-hectare tribalised farms project was also progressing well.

He said the project team was currently undertaking situational analysis and preparing the inception reports, which are important milestones in the planning process.

Mr Smart said by the end of the past financial year, Tati Land Board managed to acquire 6.3 hectares in Mabudzane out of the planned target of 110 hectares.

“This financial year, the land board has resolved to follow up on the remaining 103.7 hectares at the villages of Tati Siding, Masunga, Jackalas No 2 and Mabudzane,” he said, noting that the bulk of the land had already been assessed and project memorandum had been sent to the

Department of Lands to allow for disbursement of funds.

As such, he said Tati Land Board intended to allocate about 2 000 plots for residential, ploughing fields and business in various villages this financial year from the month of August.

He continued to state that the registration for Child Support Grant of P300 was ongoing for all children under 12 months and a total of 606 children across the district had been registered and payments were scheduled to be done by end of this month with arrears for April and May. ENDS