Cow slaughter furore
Ezibeleni man decries actions of the police
AFURORE has broken out between the Ezibeleni police and a resident of the area, with a stray cow in the centre of the fracas.
This week, Ezibeleni homeowner Anele Nunu accused the police of breaking into his yard and his garage to retrieve the carcass of a cow which he had slaughtered after it wandered into his yard.
In the meantime, the police have confirmed that an inquiry was under way into Nunu’s action of slaughtering the stray cow.
Stray cows are problematic in the township and on Sunday Nunu, who lives in zone one, said he had found a cow in his yard, eating vegetables from his garden at about 7am.
He said he called the Ezibeleni Skit Association, a body which deals with stray cows and remuneration if such stray animals cause damage to property, to report that he had found the wandering animal in his yard.
He said he warned them that if the cow was not collected by 1pm, he would slaughter it. No one came and so, Nunu said, he slaughtered the cow.
The 37-year-old unemployed man said it was the fifth time that cows had wandered into his vegetable garden, leaving devastation in their wake.
“First they trampled over the fence and ate my cabbages and spinach. I am unemployed and do not have money to fix the fence so I had to come up with a plan and fix it.
“I was hurt and angry, because I do not have money to buy vegetables, so I plant my own. I also have cows but they do not roam around unattended causing damage to other people’s yards.”
At 4pm on Sunday, two police officers arrived at his home, he
He said he warned them that if the cow was not collected by 1pm, he would slaughter it
said. They asked if he had a slip to prove purchase of the cow he had slaughtered. “I said no and they left.” He said a while later, the two police members came and fetched him from a hang-out spot in Ezibeleni, called KwaLovers, in a bakkie.
“They said we are not going to arrest you because we have no charges against you and no one has opened a case.
“I said I would go to the neighbour’s house to get the house keys and then I escaped and went back to Lovers,” Nunu said.
He claims the police then entered his house without his consent.
Upon his return, he found that the gate to the yard had been broken while the garage door had also allegedly been forced open.
“The dead cow was no longer in the garage and I saw tyre marks in the yard which headed towards the garage door.”
Nunu said community members told him the police had entered the yard through the gate and forced open the door, taking the carcass.
He claims that when he went to the Ezibeleni police station on Monday to find out what had happened, he was told that the police were planning to arrest him for slaughtering the cow.
No one had yet arrived to do so, however.
An Ezibeleni resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said people were shocked that Nunu had not been arrested.
“I tried to talk to him not to do this, but he was angry and said this has been happening for too long and he slaughtered the cow.”
Another resident, Phika Alulutho, claimed police had used pepper spray to chase away a crowd which had gathered at Nunu’s house while the carcass was being removed.
Komani cluster commander Major-General Thembisile Patekile confirmed that the police had lodged an inquiry into the slaughtering of the cow.
Nunu was not arrested as he was not expected to appear in court while an inquiry was being conducted. After the completion of such a probe, the nature of the charges, if any, would be known.
He said pepper spray was normally used by the police to disperse an aggressive crowd.
If the crowd was not aggressive, they could lay a charge against the police which would then be investigated.
“I would like to plead with the people not to take the law into their own hands. Killing a cow without a permit from the municipality is against the law. Complainants should rather contact the municipality when damage to property [as a result of stray cows] occurs.”