Masire loses over 90 zebras, blames Govt.

Former President Sir Ketumile Masire has blamed government for the loss since last week of his 89 plus zebras in his farm near Sekoma village.

He said the death toll has been rising by the day since Wednesday last week. According to Masire his farm had over 300 zebras before the unfortunate incident. “If you have wild animals confined in an area you have to be aware of the resources that the animals require. You must be aware of the numbers that are stocked within that confined area,” explained the former President.

He said that as far back as three or more years ago he approached the Department of National Parks and notified them that he is worried that the number of wild animals was increasing where he was keeping them.

“They said they would send their own team to go asses the situation. I was particularly worried about zebras because they are water animals. They sent their people to go and look at the situation. Their officials came and said they had only seen five zebras”, he said this week.

Masire who was addressing the media at his state house said he was talking of numbers in hundreds but the department was talking about five. “I said the disparity is so great that there must be a very big mistake somewhere. That was not investigated and the department agreed to what their officials said- that is there are five Zebras in the farm.”

The internationally renowned statesman indicated that he left the matter at that stage until sometime early last year when he went back to appraise the department that considering the water situation, the grazing situation and the aging pipeline, which he was using to draw water to the drinking spot for the animals - the number of the animals must be drastically reduced.

“Again we went through the same process. It was one thing after the other. Firstly they were going to think about it secondly they have formed a committee to look at the matter and thirdly they agreed something has to be done. So they sent the second team early this year. The team that came back with the report said they have indentified seeing in the bush 150 zebras. They said they were going to see what to do about it and ultimately, I was told yes, they want to buy but they had a problem with pricing because there was no price for wild animals in Botswana. The only price they were aware of was the price of wild animals in South Africa”, a disappointed Masire said adding, “Then I said why don’t you buy because there is a price, they said no- it is too high for us. I said higher than what?”

 He said a zebra in South Africa costs about R6 000. Masire stated that the department later offered to buy at P3 000 per Zebra. He agreed to the offer as long as the department officials take upon them the risks that came with catching these animals.

“So the next thing they did was nothing, until I went to them again and they said no it is too hot to catch,” Masire said. “But an inevitable thing happened because I was thinking if anything happens to the pipeline, borehole or engine to create a situation on the farm there is going to be a problem.

Indeed the pipeline, which is 23km in length, burst along the line. It is 16km to the first reservoir and 7km to the next reservoir where the animals were drinking. So this exhausted the supply of water to the reservoir as some animals broke into other camps while others sat around the reservoir site and died.”

Masire said he reported the matter to the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism but no help was offered. He stated that they have since burnt and buried the dead Zebras. He said he started game farming in the 1980s. The former president said he has not taken a decision on his next step about the matter because he is still to meet the wildlife department officials.

Director at the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Major General Otisitswe Tiroyamodimo could not be reached for comment as he was said to be in a meeting.