Follow up story

26/05/2021/Communitymonitor/Mmabore Mogashoa/Limpopo/Sekhukhune,Ga-Mogashoa village

The fields we had are not enough as people are buying and building houses where it was originally fields for ploughing sorghum and grazing. Land is being sold and our livestock suffer. Some of the fields have thorn trees because people are no longer ploughing. Some tried but because of the birds they stopped. Herding livestock was a full time work for people who had them in our homes and now you can only see few herding their livestock. Another reason is children are at school and those who are in their youth stage are doing different things. Drug and substance abuse is also a problem because instead of looking after the livestock they do their own things that add problems to our lives. Livestock owners are frustrated, government need to assist people with land for grazing and keeping livestock . Another issue is that the number of elderly men who as per our culture are the ones responsible for herding the livestock had decreased. The pandemics, climate change, environmental injustices, product packaging materials, food and drinks of today are a cause to this kind of problem. Turning our backs from our forefathers’ ways of living is costing us. Some just open the ‘kraals’ in the morning and the livestock decides where they can find food. Sometimes you hear sound of donkeys at night because they are not well taken of. I have checked few websites for animals but I saw that some of the laws are not happening especially in rural areas. There are agricultural policies but people need to be educated about them. Livestock can be a profitable business but most of our communities are unable to get information/training and land is still an issue.