Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe

San get permission to kill elephants in park

Pamenus Tuso in Bulawayo
issue date :2005-May-15

THE government has granted permission the San clan in Tsholotsho South,
which borders Hwange National Park to the north and Botswana to the east, to
kill at least two elephants each month.
The move was taken so that the clan, which still leads a very traditional
way of life, could supplement their diet with game meat.
Vice-President Joyce Mujuru delivered the news during a tour of a medical
camp at Tsholotsho District Hospital last week.
She said during her visit to this drought prone-area towards the March
parliamentary elections, Sans had complained to her about hunger.
"When I visited the area these people were saying to me 'we are asking for
game meat' and as government we have decided that something should be done,"
she said.
Mujuru, who was accompanied by the Speaker of Parliament John Nkomo and
Matabeleland North provincial governor Thoko Mathuthu, said the procedures
and formalities of slaughtering the elephants would be soon communicated to
the governor.
She asked the governor to make sure that the facility would not be abused.
Attempts have also been made by the villagers to poach the elephants, which
they accuse of destroying their crops.

Kathi,

Glad to see you didn't let the turkeys keep you down! Welcome back!

Happy to have you here. I sure would miss your posts!

B.Martins

Kathi

Welcome back! Looking forward to your future posts.

Welcome back!

Kathi!

I am glad you changed your mind. You and Ganyana are my sources for info on what is going on in Zim.

465H&H

Allowing some harvesting of wildlife by the local population gives it some value. Excluding all the local residents just creates poachers.

But unfortunately I think this will be a trend with more elephants sacrificed to feed people due to the failure of squatter farmers on ex-commercial farms.