Livestock dies and affects owners finances

Community Alerts/Mathapelo/Limpopo/30 May 2017

From 18-20 May this is what I was conducting interviews with cattle owners of Mantjekane and Morapaneng. Both Mr Hendrick Tsao and Ephraim Mpheti were born and grew up in Mantjekane. The cattle owners are confused and angry sometimes when they talk so I start by being emotional because they are old and loss of their livestock adds to their stress.

I went out to meet Mr Tsao who is also a victim he lost 5 goats. He went to the mine premises after his goats went missing for four days, he suspected they might be within the mine premises for grazing when he got to the mine the security personnel refused to let him in but he stayed until they opened gates for him to look for his goats, he managed to take them home where they died after four days. He says his goats used to graze with no harm before the mine operations started. This incident occurred on the 20^th July. Few weeks later, livestock died in numbers at the mine stream. Mr Tsao use to go to mine to talk to Lebang and he also told the management how their houses are cracked. They were given a letter that stated that they will be employed by the mine but even today they are still waiting.

Mr Mpheti is another victim who lost his cattle; he used his money to buy grass for his cows and bought water for his cattle. Mr Mpheti lost two cows and three had miscarriages .He showed me some of the medicine he gave to the cattle to drink to make them stronger because the cattle are weak and sometimes develop small lumps on their bodies. He told me that he buys medicine for other cattle owners as they make their livestock better, with all his initiative its painful to know that despite buying grass, medicine and water at the end their cattle dies and they are not employed and use the money meant to take care of their families.  By Mmathapelo-Sekhukhune Limpopo