Kill the blooming goat to find the owner

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Wednesday October 13, 2010 00:00

 

A man recently shot a goat that 'trespassed' into his yard, destroying crops and other plants in his backyard.Confirming the incident, Kgosi Oscar Mosielele said since there was apparent resistance from the tribe to keep livestock out of the village, he would not prosecute complaints of livestock killed within the village.  'Up to now, the owner of that goat still hasn't shown up,' Kgosi Mosielele said. 'We don't know who it is.' He added that in future, they will allow people to confiscate straying livestock that disturbs them and whose owners are not known. This comes after a September 2010 deadline to have a livestock-free village passed mainly unheeded. 

In an interview earlier in the year, Kgosi Mosielele said livestock were the root cause of many conflicts in the village because the owners left the animals to roam wildly. 

The morafe agreed to take their livestock to cattle posts or farmlands or keep them at least five kilometres from the village.

Kgosi Mosielele said villagers who still kept animals in the village would be identified and approached.  'By end of November, we should have achieved something,' he said.  'These livestock are causing havoc: the owners release them onto the street and they go straight into someone's compound and devour their plants.'   He added that those who don't have money to hire herdsmen should sell their livestock to those who can afford to look after them. 

Meanwhile, the Kgosi has made an agreement with management of Diratsame Junior Secondary School to have lunch every year with the best performing students.  

'It is a five-year contract through which we hope students will be encouraged to work harder.  We encourage parents to show more interest in their children's school work,' he said.