MOKATAKO: Seosenyeng Moraladi says that in his 74 years spent living in the border village, he has never seen Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). His parents never mentioned the disease during their years. “We had never heard of it nor seen it,” he told Mmegi on Tuesday. “Lately, we’ve been hearing about it from other countries, and we were told it was in South Africa. “Here, we still don’t have it. “We don’t even know what it looks like, except for what the veterinary officers showed us in education documents.” Standing next to the new cordon fence, a few metres from the border line, Moraladi contained his emotions as he spoke about the despair that had befallen the community since the April 2 shock announcement of FMD detection at the Ramatlabama National Artificial Insemination Laboratory (NAIL).
Throughout the southern districts, communal cattle are in obviously prime condition, having benefited immensely from the healthy summer rains. Their glistening coats belie a disease that is stalking the area. Where cattle farmers expected to reap handsome rewards from the rains, disaster has struck. Mokatako in the Good Hope District lies on the long-running border with South Africa, marked by the Molopo River, which forms a natural boundary between the two countries for hundreds of kilometres in the east and south. Many communities in the village live a stone’s throw from settlements in South Africa and share strong familial ties. Mokatako is located in Zone 11, the country’s second-largest disease control zone, approximately 85,000 to 95,000 square kilometres in size, comparable to the country of Portugal. While FMD has struck most of the country’s 22 disease control zones at one time or another since the beginning of the year, Zone 11 is the current epicentre of a virus outbreak best described as a wrecking ball for the rural economy.
