How Masire got and lost 89 zebras
Bame Piet | Thursday January 14, 2016 10:08
Mourning the death of at least 86 zebras at his game ranch near Sekoma village, due to the recent heat wave, Masire shared his frustrations with journalists Tuesday evening.
He said that he went into game farming because he loves animals, and had ambitions of venturing into tourism but could not do farming at the same time being President.
“These are the prices you pay for becoming a president. You can’t do game farming and being a president. So, I had to forego certain things to be a president.
He said that he got his zebras by engaging two South African companies. One, to go and capture the animals whilst the second was a trucking company to transport the animals to Sekoma. “They were caught at a place called Khaiwa between Makgadikgadi and Maun. They were transported from there through Nata, Gaborone, Lobatse, Jwaneng and then Sekoma. It’s a huge investment,” he said. They were not many, he said, but multiplied over the years since the late 80s. He said the whole process is very expensive and exhausting. He said the normal price of a zebra is P6,000 but he has never sold one. “What happened is that my zebras died. Had you asked me on Wednesday, I would have said 20, on Thursday 40, but the number has increased to 89. This has happened or it was bound to happen at a later stage,” he said on Tuesday.
He said that as far back as four years ago he approached Wildlife Department about the growing population of the zebras and they said they will send their own team to assess the situation, which they did.
Zebras are water animals he said, and they need to be availed water resources all the time. He said wildlife officers who went to inspect the ranch were negligent in ensuring that the number of the animals was equivalent to the available water resources.
He said that they indicated their desire to buy some of the animals but they had a problem with the price as they felt it was too high compared to the prices in South Africa.
“Later they offered to buy for P3,000 an animal. I said it’s ok as long as you take the risk to capture and transport the animal. So the next thing they did was nothing,” he said. Masire said his worries about the condition of the borehole, pipeline came true and the 23-kilometre pipeline burst along the line.
The reservoir, although big, was unable to supply the large number of the animals for a long time and the animals died by the reservoir side. Others provided a source of meals for lions in the area.
The matter was reported to the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism and they assisted in the disposal of the rotten carcases by burning and burying them.
“We got them into heaps, got firewood put diesel and burned them and got rid of the carcases,” Masire said.
He said that in his game ranch near Sekoma in the Ngwaketse West Constituency, he is keeping close to 300 zebras.
Masire said he started farming in the 80s, and Sekoma is a new farm and realised it was difficult to get water as it was saline. He drilled 15 boreholes out of which he got the saline water from two boreholes.
“I did all I could but there is no water. For a change the Land Board was very sympathetic and allowed me to look for water as long as I do not do farming in the land of exploration”.