Clash over cattle
Problems continue with strays and Alexandria commonage
AFORMER ANC councillor has landed a cushy job as Ndlambe’s commonage manager at R23 000 a month, but little headway has been made in addressing the myriad problems at Kruisfontein commonage in Alexandria, which resulted in a court order against the municipality last year.
Stray cattle, unbranded animals, disease, lack of fencing, failure to control use of the commonage and prolific alien invasive vegetation were among the issues the municipality was instructed to address in the court order granted to Agri Eastern Cape.
Ndlambe Municipality appointed former councillor Siphiwo Funde as commonage officer on March 1, for the express purpose of assisting with management and compliance at Kruisfontein Farm.
In a report from municipal manager Rolly Dumezweni to council at last week’s council meeting, he said meetings had been held with livestock owners and ward councillors in Wards 1 and , about the excessive number of cattle on the farm – more than 900, when the carrying capacity of the land is 350.
“To deal with the high numbers of cattle in Kruisfontein, discussions are continuing between the LED [local economic development] unit and departments to assist in establishing a feedlot at the farm so as to fatten the excess number of cattle to meet required weight for market,” Dumezweni wrote. “Also in this regard, agreement has been reached with a local farmer to buy the excess cattle once they meet the required weight and ownership’s confirmed.”
Dumezweni said the municipality had also been tagging animals at Kruisfontein, with 789 cattle and 24 goats tagged.
He admitted there was insufficient fencing around the property, but said the municipality had provided fencing to farmers for areas that posed a risk to neighbouring farms.
“Farmers, as part of their commitment and contribution will do the fencing on their own.”
Dumezweni further said the department of agriculture had agreed to offer veterinary services for the cattle on the farm, as required by the court order.
But when the vets showed up last month, they could not offer services due to the dilapidated handling facilities.
The department of agriculture had turned down their application for financial assistance to eradicate alien vegetation in this financial year, so the internal budget would have to be used, Dumezweni said.
Last week, DA councillor Joc Guest wrote to Agri EC representative Brent McNamara, saying councillors had been told by Dumezweni that the municipality was “pleasing you with their progress made”.
Copying in Talk of the Town in his response, McNamara said what Guest had reported to him could not be further from the truth.
“In my view, the situation on Kruisfontein has got worse and not better.
“Cattle are still not branded, unauthorised animals are still present on the commonage, no tariffs are being implemented, stock theft and infrastructure vandalism continues unabated, the list goes on. This is with regards to Kruisfontein, the situation within the residential areas and other public open spaces within Alexandria is just as bad,” McNamara said.
He said no one from the municipality had engaged with him on the compliance issues brought up in the court order and he had not even met the commonage manager.
“The last time the MM [municipal manager] spoke to me about this matter was in February 2017, the mayor and I have yet to meet, in spite of them both being respondents in the matter. So where they get the information that they are pleasing me, only they will know,” McNamara said.
He said commercial farmers neighbouring Kruisfontein had also had no success in engaging with the commonage manager. Last Friday, Ignatius Muller, one of the neighbouring farmers who is a co-applicant in the case against Ndlambe, wrote to Dumezweni to say he had not seen any improvement in the management of the commonage since Funde was appointed.
He asked why Funde was not compelling cattle owners to stop their animals from straying, controlling access to the commonage and addressing vandalism and fence cutting.
McNamara said: “One would think that instead of appointing an out-of-work former ANC councillor, the municipality could employ a graduate from one of our agricultural colleges who understands agriculture or at least basic animal husbandry, to make a difference.”
“The municipality has complied with very little with regards to the court order. Instead, they continue to play games, such as changing their legal representation and not filing affidavits on time.”
McNamara also accused the DA of doing a poor job in holding the responsible officials accountable.
In response, DA caucus leader Ray Schenk said the DA had kept up pressure in council on the issues.
“A number of the interventions already made by the municipality is as a direct result of our discussions. We cannot intervene in court judgments . . . ” he said.