Villagers endure cold nights as marauding animals wreak havoc

By Owen Gagare

From The Chronicle April 2, 2009

SCORES of people, among them youths, men and women sit at night by the fireside in small groups along the Dete Centre turnoff, off the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway.
On the other side of the road are unattended burning fires about 100 metres apart and occasionally one sees people holding large whips, moving up and down the road.
One can tell that there is something amiss in the community, after all the expression on the villagers’ faces tells a story, which cannot be ignored.
Sixty-year-old Masolani Ndlovu of Dingane Village in Ward 15 in Dete is one of the villagers sitting besides a fire with a large whip in his hand.
On being asked what he was doing by the roadside in the chilly weather, he shakes his head and says, “indlovu mntanami, indlovu (elephants my child, elephants”.
He goes on to narrate the suffering he and other villagers have endured at the hands of the giant animals and other species which freely roam in the village.
The village is next to Hwange National Park, the biggest animal sanctuary in the country which is home to a wide range of animals including the Big Five.
“I don’t want to be here but if I am to harvest anything from the fields I know that I have no choice but to guard my fields so that they are not invaded by elephants and wild pigs at night. During the day, I have to contend with baboons, so that’s why I am here,” he says.
Mr Ndlovu said in a single night they drive away wild pigs and large herds of elephants several times.
“When they come, we point a spotlight at them and crack whips so that they run away. They mistake the cracking whips for gunshots and we normally successfully drive them off. We, however get problems when we don’t have a spot light or when they manage to get into the fields because once they are in the field, they become very aggressive.
“On several occasions they charge at us and we have to run away in all directions to save our lives,” he said.
Mr Ndlovu said a large herd of elephants numbering 15 destroyed a field belonging to one of the villagers last week as helpless villagers watched.
Another villager, Mr Elias Lakhana Ndlovu, said apart from the elephants and wild pigs, baboons were a big menace since they were “stubborn” and normally moved in large numbers.
“They can descend on the fields in their hundreds and grab maize cobs while you are there. If you chase them, they normally run away for a short distance and return a few minutes later. Sometimes they grab a cob and eat it while looking at you as if to say ‘what can you do to me’,” he said.
“We are in a dilemma because officials from the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority who are supposed to help us to drive away the problematic animals are not coming to our aid. The Communal Area Management Programme for Indigenous Resources is also not functioning well, so there is no scout to help us.
“Long back, they used to shoot some of the problem animals and as a result the elephants would avoid coming to the fields, but now that there is nothing happening, the elephants are coming here everyday.
“We are in a dilemma because if we kill any of the animals then we get into trouble. We get arrested for poaching.”
Mr Elias Ndlovu said the villagers were using their own resources to deal with problem animals although, if it was functioning well, the CAMPFIRE programme was supposed to assist them.
He said he was using his solar panel to charge batteries used to power the torch which the community spots the animals. The torch belongs to Mr Masalani Ndlovu.
Mrs Judith Dube, is one of the women who as a way of “protecting” her field has built a makeshift home at her fields to make sure that her crops are not destroyed.
“I moved here soon after planting my crops at the end of November because the crops are attacked from an early age right until we harvest. I go back home only once a week, for a few hours because the situation is serious,” she says.
“I don’t enjoy the cold nights here, but I have no choice considering the hunger that we are going through because we did not harvest anything last year. This year, we received rains and the crops are good, so it’s up to us to make sure we protect what is in our fields. If we don’t we will go hungry.”
A weary looking Mrs Juliet Tshuma said, she was worried because she had left her children alone at home.
She revealed that parents had resorted to locking their children from outside so that they are safe in their absence.
“We leave buckets for them to relieve themselves at night because there are many lions and hyenas in the area. They roam around freely in our village so we lock children inside for their protection,” she said.
Most of the villagers travel between five and 10 kilometres from their homes to protect their fields from the marauding wild animals.
They have had to endure cold rainy nights to ensure that there is food security at their homes.