Inter-ministerial team set up to tackle cattle rustling

Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has set up an inter-ministerial team to look into the problem of increasing cattle rustling cases in the country as the crime has the potential to derail the Government’s livestock restocking programme.

The cases are on the increase in Matabeleland region with Matabeleland South police running an operation code-named “Let’s fight stock thieves/Asilwiseni amasela ezifuyo/Ngatirwisei mbavha dzezvipfuyo” from September 26 to October 2.

The operation led to the recovery of hundreds of cattle some of which were stolen in Botswana.

Most of the cattle were recovered in Tshanyaugwe, John Dip, Collen Bawn, Makhado, West Nicholson among others.

Farmers have since been urged to go to Matabeleland South Provincial Agricultural Show Grounds in Gwanda to identify their missing cattle.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Esigodini Agricultural College graduation ceremony yesterday, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Dr Anxious Masuka said the President is concerned with the matter and wants solutions as a matter of urgency.

“Cattle rustling is now a nationwide problem, here in Matabeleland South, we have reports; Manicaland, reports in Mashonaland West, Manicaland, Masvingo and everywhere throughout the country to the extent that the President has now directed that an inter-ministerial committee be formed to look at this national issue,” said Dr Masuka.

“Livestock is so critical to the well-being of Zimbabweans and to the President`s vision of empowering society. 90 percent of the cattle are in rural areas so we need to protect this asset for economic development. We are going to interrogate the value chain from sales pens through to buyers to the role of Rural District Councils, police, butcheries, transporters, transportation times, restaurants, and consumers so that whoever is found on the wrong side of the law will feel the pinch of the law in order to eliminate this vice.”

Dr Masuka said his ministry will chair the inter-ministerial committee which also has the Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Local Government, and Public Works among other relevant ministries.

In his speech at the graduation ceremony at the college where 116 graduated, Dr Masuka said there is a need for agricultural colleges in the country to produce candidates who will drive transformation in the agricultural sector so that Zimbabwe meets National Development Strategy 1 targets.

Dr Masuka said graduates from training institutions of agriculture must be the mainstay of transforming the agriculture sector.

“Zimbabwe undertook a land reform program which was transformative 20 years ago. It ushered in 21 000 A2 farmers and 360 000 A1 farmers and perhaps over 90 percent of these beneficiaries were and are still non-agriculturalists. These farmers joined an additional 2,3 million smaller holder farmers. All these classes of farmers are waiting to be transformed by this cohort of graduates,” he said.

Dr Masuka said the country’s training institutions for long remained stuck in the past and failed to adjust to the changes brought about by climate change which crippled the country’s production and productivity.

“We need graduates that are able to display unique entrepreneurship excellence which radiates into communities and them acting as epicentres of agricultural transformation. It is in this context that I have emphasised that the transformation of agriculture must start with the transformation of the mindset of the ministers, college principals outlook and mindset, lecturers’ mode of delivery in the lecture theatre and be packaged in the graduate’s mind,” he said.

Dr Masuka said this transformation will rub into farming communities where graduates from colleges will be deployed to help achieve Vision 2030.

The minister said there is a need to transform how agriculture is done in the villages so that the majority of farmers in the country become participants in the economic development of the country.

The 23rd Esigodini College of Agriculture saw 89 national diploma course students and 27 who did the youth intensive livestock production course graduating.

The event was attended by Matabeleland South Minister of State Abedinico Ncube, Umzingwane MP Brigadier-General (Retired) Levi Mayihlome and other dignitaries. — @themkhust