Obert Chifamba

A FEW years back, I was travelling to Bulawayo with a colleague. We had stopped for the night in Gweru, so the following day we continued our journey at the break of dawn. And somewhere between Shangani and Ntabazinduna, we came across four dead cattle.

Three of them were just lying on the shoulders of the road intact but the fourth had not been that fortunate and had been crushed and rolled into a heap of both dung and mangled flesh. They had probably been hit by a big vehicle the previous night. There was no sign of humanity anywhere near the scene and so we just proceeded, discussing the matter.

On our way back at dusk, we found three young men savaging parts off one of the dead cows in a culvert and loading them into a scotch cart waiting in the bushes. When they saw our car stopping they all ran away into the deepening darkness. And so we just drove off to spend the night in Gweru once again.

A few weeks later, we woke up to the news that our pastor had passed on in an accident after the bus he was travelling in to Bulawayo overturned when it hit a stray cow just a few metres from Shangani shops. He was not the only casualty from the bus, as many other passengers either lost their lives or escaped with injuries.

These two incidents mirror the dangers that come with leaving cattle to roam freely along roads when there are no fences to restrict them to safe distances from passing vehicles.

And not so long ago, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe spent over US$500 000 to erect fences on either sides of a 162-kilometre stretch of the road stretching from Gweru and past Mbembesi but the fences have since been vandalised in some spots with cattle now using those points to enter the roads.

Mbembesi police have blamed the vandalism on thieves and also warned farmers against leaving gates open but in most cases such warnings seem to fall on deaf ears because once something of that nature happens, it should get farmers worried and moving to find solutions. If it means forming committees to oversee the protection of the fence, then they should do so because everything happening as a result of the broken fences always comes back to haunt them one way or the other.

The sad reality is that some people probably just remove the fences out of spite or to re-use on their farms while in some cases years of neglect cause the fences to fall to the ground making them easy prey for thieving people to just cut off pieces and disappear. But that is not an excuse. People living adjacent to the roads should just be responsible enough to check if the fence is still serving its intended purpose and correct anomalies that may come with time.

A similar situation is also rife along the Bulawayo-Plumtree highway, the Gwanda-Beitbridge highway and the Masvingo-Beitbridge road where travelling at night is nightmarish as domestic animals can just emerge from nowhere.

I remember at some point the Masvingo-Beitbridge and Gwanda-Beitbridge stretches resembled the biblical Golgotha with cattle and donkey bones littering the shoulders of the road because once hit by a passing car, the animals’ owners would not claim them fearing that motorists whose vehicles might have been damaged after hitting the animals could still be out there looking for them to claim compensation. And so the majority of the animals killed by passing vehicles are left to waste on the shoulders of the roads or become food for scavenging dogs, foxes, crows and other flesh-eaters.

This means that the farmer will be the biggest loser after years of caring and investing in the welfare of the animal and the loss will also impact negatively on food security especially where the animal would have been part of the family’s draught power.

It would be very unfortunate for human lives to be lost in accidents involving cattle or donkeys straying onto the roads yet they should be in pens for the night or grazing safely in the pastures without ready access to the roads during the day. Sometimes it is not even an issue of the fence being broken or stolen but there are individuals who leave gates open when they pass through the fenced areas, which provide exit points for animals.

Cattle or donkeys have caused lots of accidents on the roads especially during the night and many people have lost their lives while the animals in most cases have not survived or have escaped with permanent injuries that have seen the owners either slaughtering them or selling them for a song just to salvage something. In all cases it is the farmer’s loss yet this is happening because of irresponsible behaviour by some individuals.

In a related matter, the Government and its partners are also waging another battle to contain diseases using both fences and veterinary chemicals, which also underlines the importance of fencing off areas where livestock, particularly cattle, live. Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) chief director Dr Josphat Nyika recently said the Livestock Growth Plan, which is part of the Agriculture and Food Systems Transformation Strategy had outlined several strategies to curb the spread of the disease.

He said the besides animal vaccinations, the initial plan was to erect a 230-kilometre electric foot and mouth disease (FMD) control fence around Gonarezhou National Park, which is the hottest FMD spot in the country stressing that Zimparks had also fenced 60 of the 230 kilometres.

Out of the remaining 170km, 70km have already been fenced and electrified. The programme will also target Hwange, Chizarira and Chirisa National Parks with the total perimeter to be fenced at a total cost of US$32 million stretching to about 1 600km.

Fencing will also solve human-wildlife conflicts at the ecosystem interface.