Residents raise alarm over ‘donkey meat’

Nobukhosi Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter

RESIDENTS of Cowdray Park in Bulawayo have raised a red flag over fresh donkey parts found in the suburb, raising suspicions that the animals could have been stolen from surrounding areas and slaughtered for meat.

Of late, there has been a high rise of street vendors selling meat on the pavements in the city centre. The meat is suspected to have found a market in the city where illegal food vendors could be selling it to unsuspecting consumers.

On Sunday, residents of the sprawling suburb woke up to the disturbing sight of the donkey carcasses and that led to the circulation of images on WhatsApp groups to alert communities to desist from buying strange meat.

Kholwani Dube a resident of Cowdray Park said this was not the first time they wake up to a slaughtered donkey.

“This issue is very disheartening and we suspect that whoever slaughtered that donkey did it to sell meat to people,” he said.

Another resident who declined to be named said: “I don’t know how we can deal with this issue of people selling meat, especially around the new stands area where there are a lot of vendors operating. The meat looks like beef because of its red colour, but I suspect it could be donkey meat.”

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said while they had not received any report, members of the public should desist from buying unregulated meat products.

“We have not received any report to that effect, but we urge members of the public to desist from buying meat in the streets as it is a health hazard. People should buy meat from registered butcheries,” he said.

In 2017 the Veterinary Services Department warned the public against consuming dog meat after the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) raided a homeless Bulawayo man, identified only as Ndebele, who was selling dog meat from carcasses taken from a municipal dump site.

The man had been skinning the carcasses of dogs that would have been put down by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).