Butchery owners in Gaborone are complaining that lack of abattoirs in the city has contributed to the sale of unhealthy beef, unreliable veterinary officers and a potentially dangerous reliance on substandard village slaughter slabs.Following unconfirmed reports that the Gaborone City Council (GCC) was equally concerned about the slaughtering of cattle at some abattoirs outside of Gaborone, local butchery owners and farmers have put the blame on GCC for failing them five years ago when the Gaborone abattoir was closed down.
The Managing Director of Lobame Meat Centre, Murray Dipate, says the old council abattoir was shut down by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) because of its incapacitated holding kraals and unsustainable sewerage system that was prone to blockages at peak hours of slaughtering. Dipate alleges that afterwards, a tender to run an ostrich abattoir was issued to Quality Meat, a butchery and therefore a competitor. In 2012, butcheries requested MoA to run the ostrich abattoir as a subsidiary of Botswana Meat Commission or alternatively allow GCC to operate it so as to avoid conflict between competing butchery owners, but to no avail. Dipate and other butchery owners ended up slaughtering their cattle at Mochudi, Molepolole and Lobatse. Butchery owners in Tlokweng, Ramotswa, Molepolole, Thamaga and other surrounding areas mostly slaughter in Mochudi while a few go to Molepolole.
