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Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
TEN tonnes of sorghum and a variety of farm property including goat pens were destroyed by a veld fire at the Bulawayo City Council (BCC)-owned Goodhope Farm amid suspicion that the inferno could have been caused by illegal gold panners who have invaded part of the property.
A council report stated that the veld fire broke out on 4 October and enveloped the entire farm, although no livestock were lost.
“The fire started some two to three farms away and spread into Goodhope Farm just after 2pm. Although the farm had some fire guards the windy conditions and the dry tall grass facilitated the rapid spread of the fire.
“When the fire broke into the farm the acting farm manager was attending a briefing at the City Hall. He immediately alerted the Fire Brigade to rush to the farm and assist in putting out the fire. Farm employees being led by their supervisors also tried to battle the fierce inferno. The fire fighting was not effective as the wind was strong and constantly changing directions,” reads the council report.
The local authority revealed that fortunately when the veld fire broke out all their livestock were penning and a few employees had stood guard while the rest fought to extinguish it.
“However, the fire ended up advancing towards the pens, the goat pens were partially burnt and further damage was averted by using knapsack sprayers to extinguish the burning manure. There was no loss of livestock at the farms during this inferno.
“The fire brigade team left while the fire was still raging as they received another call and they said they prioritise the protection of property rather than the pastures,” reads the report.
Among the damages noted during the inferno were the goat pens that were partially burnt and the 10 tonnes of sorghum grain.
“An estimated 10 tonnes of sorghum grain that had been harvested and ready to be moved for threshing was also lost to the fire, a three-tonne four-wheel tractor trailer was also burnt with all the tyres and tubes being lost, a total of 3739 hay bales were also burnt.
The whole of Goodhope Farm was burnt and over 600 hectares of grazing was lost as a result livestock grazing is now limited with only overgrazed Aisleby Farm providing some relief for now,” reads the report.
To avert a possible livestock feeding crisis, the local authority resolved to use as much sorghum crop residues as possible for supplementary feeding and secure some beer brewing spent grain from Ingwebu Breweries as a form of supplementary feeding.
“Council will also purchase pen feeding meal to complement the other efforts and consider culling or destocking in order to reduce livestock deaths. When constructing fire guards there was need to convert them into roads by hiring a grader.
“In the long term there was also a need to have a bowser that would be used to assist in fire fighting since the farms were prone to fires because of the mining that was taking place at the farms, where the miners set fires to clear the land so that they could use their metal dictators to search for gold,” reads the report.
The country experienced one of the worst fire seasons this year as last month ten people died in an inferno that broke out at Red Ross Mine in Esigodini, Matabeleland South Province, where illegal gold panners are suspected to have been behind the cause of the veld fire.
Sidumisile Mabena