Addressing farmers at a Kgotla meeting in Maun last Friday, the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) executive manager (strategy and management) Dr Stephen Ghanie told the farmers that the long envisaged deal faltered at the last hurdle. Despite reports that a number of Angolan businessmen had shown interest in buying cattle from the FMD ravaged Ngamiland, that country's veterinary authority reportedly refused to grant an import certificate. On the other hand, the Namibians are also not willing to grant a pass certificate to allow Angolan-bound cattle to pass through their territory by road from neighbouring Botswana.
Negotiations between the Botswana, Namibia and Angolan veterinary authorities for this deal started last year.Ghanie told the farmers that Angola says that they can only buy cattle from FMD green areas in Botswana, not Ngamiland.Meanwhile, Dr Ghanie dropped another bombshell at the gathering with another unpopular revelation that the majority of communal farmers in Ngamiland have been left out of the Zimbabwean live cattle export deal. The deal will for now only cover farmers from the Hainaveld farms and Zones 2a and 2b while 2c FMD red spot areas, constituting the largest communal cattle farming zone in Ngamiland, will not be covered.He said the veterinary officials from Zimbabwe, after coming to Botswana for assessments a few weeks back, said they would only buy cattle from fenced areas in Ngamiland.
