Maravi

Kalomo council losing K30m per month due to livestock movement ban

Kalomo council losing K30m per month due to livestock movement ban - M
By Lawrence Lungu and Mutale Kapeke
Friday April 20, 2007 [04:00] Print

KALOMO District Council is losing over K30 million per month as a result of the ban imposed on livestock movement in some parts of Southern Province. Council secretary Alfred Mungalu said in an interview that the council normally raised over K1 million a day in levies on cattle. “But since the ban was imposed in February, we have lost out on this source of revenue,” Mungalu said.

The movement of livestock in some parts of the Southern Province has been banned due to the outbreak of Contagious Bovine Pleural Pneumonia (CBPP).

Mungalu also said the revenue the council raised from grain levies had also gone down as most of the maize in the district was being bought by the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).
“Normally, we get K1,250 for every 50 kilogram bag of maize that is ferried out of the district. But when the FRA buys the maize as was the case last year, we only get K500 per 50 kg bag,” Mungalu explained.

Meanwhile, Kalomo District Council has warned house owners in the district that the council would soon swing into action to demolish illegal structures. Mungalu said a number of people that bought former council houses were making illegal extensions to the structures without council authority. “Next week we will call a meeting with these people so as to forewarn them. We don’t want to catch them by surprise,” said Mungalu.

And Mungalu said the council despite having only a limited source of income was up-to-date with paying its employees. He attributed this to control measures it had put in place.

And a traditional leader in Livingstone has said the cattle movement ban in Kazungula district was unfair to his people as the concerned authorities were selective in imposing the ban. Headman Frederick Mukubesa in an interview said his people were not allowed to import cattle from neghbouring Kasaya village, yet a lot of animals were being transported from Sesheke and Kazungula into Livingstone daily.

He said government authorities did nothing to big butchery owners in Livingstone, who transport cattle in hundreds every day from areas the dreaded CBPP was more pronounced but threatened his people for moving a few animals.

Headman Mukubesa said government should seriously consider lifting the ban as poverty levels were getting higher in the affected areas and that people had no alternative source of income other than the cattle trade.

He said his people survived on buying and selling cattle because his area was not conducive for farming due to severe drought and elephant invasions. He said telling cattle traders to transport only carcasses was unreasonable as no one in his area had access to refrigerated trucks or enough money to hire one.

Labels: CATTLE, LOCAL GOVERNMENT

posted by MrK @ 11:39 AM