Politics, popular grievances and the power of animal advocacy
Sunday, May 05, 2019
To them it seems that Western animal lovers and animal-rights NGOs, and their African allies, appear to cherish wildlife above any concern for people who suffer crop damage or loss of livestock. This has been a long-running issue across southern Africa, but Botswana in particular is now caught up in an increasingly bitter controversy over its elephants that is fuelled by a number of factors, including:
The rise in defilement and missing persons cases, particularly over the recent festive period, points not merely to a failure of policing, but to a profound and widespread societal crisis. Whilst the Police chief’s plea is rightly directed at parents, the root of this emergency runs deeper, demanding a collective response from every corner of our community. Marathe’s observations paint a picture of neglect with children left alone for...