FMD saga: Farmers cry foul over low compensation
Lebogang Mosikare | Friday March 17, 2017 16:54
There is a Setswana is an idiom which goes, “Ka e tlhoka ka tlhoka boroko, ka e bona ka nna ka botlhoka”.
(Loosely translated, it says whether bereft of it-a cow-, you lose sleep, whether you have it you lose sleep)The expression to some extent shows how Batswana intrinsically value their cattle.
In Botswana, the extent to which locals value their cattle cannot be over-emphasised. There is a much held belief in the country that some insane people are in that state of mind because they were allegedly bewitched by livestock owners who were angered by their livestock’s disappearance.
A cattle owner whose cattle were killed by the then Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) in 2011 to control the spread of FMD in Zone 6 joked that if it was possible to bewitch the person who took the decision to kill the cattle, he was happily going to do so because that person has impoverished him.
The farmer said that in jest after this reporter told him about the recent High Court judgement that was recently delivered by Justice Barnabas Nyamadzabo. The judgement centred around 47 farmers who took MoA to court after their cattle were culled to contain FMD. The farmers’ main gripe was the blanket measly P1,700 compensation they got from Government.
The judgement said that Government used a one-size-fits-all policy when compensating farmers, paying same amount regardless of the breed of the cattle and other factors. Some farmers owned pedigree breeds worth more than P70,000 at the time.
The State was of the view that all cattle in Zone 6 should be killed to contain FMD regardless of whether they were infected with the disease or not in order to safeguard the lucrative European Union market.
A Matsiloje farmer, businessman and former councillor, Simon Lephalo expressed bitterness over the ‘low prices’ that he got from Government after his cattle were killed in 2011.
Lephalo’s voice crackled when he talked about the issue. For him like many other farmers in Zone 6, it was not the first time that his cattle were killed to control FMD in the Zone.
In 2011, MoA culled Lephalo’s 200 cattle to control FMD while in 2000 he lost about 390 cattle due to the FMD scourge in Zone 6.
He said: “Aish! I have long told my fellow tribesmen and farmers, especially in Matsiloje that we should take Government to court to argue about the unilateral compensation that the Government was giving us but they did not heed my call.
Although I have not seen the judgement you are talking about, it would act as signpost of how farmers would be compensated by the state in future should they face the same calamity. Lephalo did not mince words when he talked about the compensation he received from Government.
“I have at various forums expressed displeasure about the compensation that Government was offering, which was peanuts. It was only meant to impoverish us. We were cheated, but I appreciate what other farmers who took the court route have done.”
Another farmer, Japhet Khuwa, who is based at Mowana shared same sentiments. An exasperated Khuwa said the compensation that he got from Government was so measly it made him poorer.
“Most of the farmers that I know succumbed to diseases they were previously not suffering from after their cattle were sold to Zimbabwe, or killed to eradicate FMD. MoA should have at least compensated us prices that are near the market price. My life has drastically changed ever since my cattle were killed. “What Government did to us was daylight robbery. Kudos to farmers who took MoA to Court and won. They fought a necessary battle, which would guide us in future interactions with MoA,” Khuwa, who lost 20 cattle said.
The chairperson of Botswana National Beef Producers Union Mandigo Direng also hailed the judgement. Direng said although he has also not seen it, they have always held the view that the compensation that Government gave to farmers was very low.
“Some cattle that were killed were not infected by FMD. That is where our main problem with Government stems from. It was a fallacy for MoA to compensate farmers with the same price for cattle that were infected by FMD and those that were not. Our position as a Union is that the Ministry should first test animals for any disease before deciding to cull them,” Direng said.
He said that Government’s one-size- fits-all policy of indiscriminately killing cattle, regardless of whether they were infected with FMD or not, was pure cruelty to animals.
“Our position is that Government should sit down with farmers to negotiate the compensation after calamities like FMD. This would prevent unnecessary conflicts between farmers and MoA in future,” Direng said, adding that in future, Government should vaccinate cattle and not cull. Part of the judgement that has raised and emboldened farmers’ hopes in equal measure partly read: “The Director of Veterinary Service’s decision to order the slaughter of the applicants cattle during the FMD outbreak in and around June 2011 be and is set aside on account of it being unreasonable or irrational, and or unfair having regard to the status of the applicants' cattle at the time”.
The judgement further said the FMD disease was confined to one part of Zone 6 and not the whole area, adding that not all cattle in the zone were infected with FMD.
“The amount of PI,700 determined by the Minister at the time proposed, or paid as compensation for each beast of the applicants slaughtered at the time, be and is set aside in favour of a reasonably negotiated amount or one assessed by the Registrar and Master,” said the judgement.