Outrage as Green Fuels auctions stray cattle
November 25, 2012 in Community News
CHISUMBANJE — A local ethanol producing company, Green Fuels has been
accused of confiscating villagers’ cattle that would have strayed in the
sugarcane plantations and selling them to the company’s staff at paltry
prices through auction.
Report By CLAYTON MASEKESA
Villagers who spoke to The Standard last week said they were losing a lot of
livestock, mostly cattle to Green Fuels, who are using the Stock Trespass
Act to confiscate their livestock.
The Act provides for the impounding of stray livestock.
Green Fuels owns two estates —Rating Investments and Macdom Investments —
that grow sugarcane which is used in the production of ethanol.
According to the villagers’ representative, Oliver Chikumba, people living
in areas such as Kondo, Mwacheta, Maronga and Musapingura have lost scores
of their livestock through the auctions.
“Security guards at Green Fuels impound cattle and donkeys they find near
their sugarcane fields.
“They will charge US$4 for one beast for a day and if the owner fails to pay
the amount, they will auction the livestock among themselves for just a few
dollars,” explained Chikumba.
He said the company had a provision for owners of the cattle to work at the
plantations as a general hand until such a time when they cleared the
arrears.
“With the meagre wages they are paying, one will work for several months to
save his or her livestock from being auctioned,” said Chikumba.
“We have evidence of cattle which were sold for US$30 each and donkeys which
were auctioned for just US$3 each.
“In rural areas, people’s wealth is invested in livestock and destroying
people’s wealth in such a manner is disheartening considering that this is
our source of livelihood.”
He called on the government to protect the villagers before they lost all
their animals.
The Standard saw some receipts bearing the Green Fuels Estate, Rating
Investments logo, where villagers were made to pay a fine to get back their
cattle.
One was receipt number 17701 of September 9 this year, when one Innocent
Maposa paid US$224 to recover eight of his cattle that were kept for seven
days by Rating Investment’s security.
Chipinge council enforcing stock trespass act
Green Fuels spokesperson Lilian Muungani said it was Chipinge Rural District
Council that was responsible for enforcing the Stock Trespass Act.
“In line with the Acts governing the operations of local authorities, the
Chipinge Rural District Council is the authority over all cattle impound
fees and stray animal auctioning programmes. Where the local authority has
no infrastructure to directly administer such by laws, affected institutions
are issued with licences,” said Muungani.
“As such, we had been running a council sanctioned and registered animals
impound programme in order to prevent the damage being done to the crops by
villagers intentionally herding their cattle into the crop.”
She added that Green Fuels was cognisant of the social value of cattle in
the area and there were plans to assist villagers with livestock feeds.