Botswana: Jumbos Destroy Masimo, School Fence
Oarabile Mosikare
18 February 2009

Francistown — A herd of elephants recently destroyed some farms in Matshelagabedi, leaving villagers without a source of livelihood. The village chief Oganne Fox has confirmed that the jumbos left a trail of destruction when they stormed Matshelagabedi on Friday night.

Fox said some villagers had complained to him about the weekend incident. The youthful chief said he did not know exactly where the elephants were coming from though there was a possibility they could have strayed into the area from far away places like the Hwange Game Reserve in Zimbabwe, through Matsiloje. One affected resident Morapedi Ntwaagae told Mmegi that the marauding beasts destroyed his family farm.

Ntwaagae disclosed that every year around this time the elephants always destroy their farm fence and crops. Matshelagabedi, situated about 15km east of Francistown, was not the only place frequented by elephants. Five elephants were spotted at Maradu Primary School in Francistown on Friday night.

School head Oratile Chabata said the elephants destroyed the school's front gate and entered the school where they demolished the school garden fence. Scores of people were later seen around the school collecting elephant dung, which is used as fertilizer.

Sometime towards the end of March last year elephants destroyed Annah Sekwena's homestead in Matsiloje. A nearby borehole was also destroyed by the elephants, which move between Hwange in the east and the Chobe Game Reserve in the west. Efforts to get comments from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks were futile at time of going to press because officers authorised to speak to the media were unavailable.

The public relations officer in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT) Golekanye Molapisi said his department went out to investigate the two incidents on Monday.


But Molapisi said the presence of elephants in Matshelagabedi and Francistown is not unusual because the northern region is the elephant range. He added that since the country experienced torrential rainfall the elephants normally move away from the perennial drinking sources to other areas.

He said his department has put in place measures to control the movement of wild animals. He explained that people who live in the elephant rangeland are taught tactics to scare them away. If an elephant destroys an arable farm, the MEWT compensates the farmer P1, 000 per hectare while a subsistence farm is compensated P250 per hectare.