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Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Cde Obedingwa Mguni

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Reporter
HOME Affairs Deputy Minister Cde Obedingwa Mguni has slammed his Botswana counterpart Mr Samson Guma-Moyo for urging the neighbouring country’s government to erect an electric fence along the two countries’ borders.

Mr Guma-Moyo is an MP for Botswana’s Tati East, an area which shares a border with Mangwe constituency.

Mr Guma-Moyo, a former Minister and the ruling Botswana Democratic Party’s chairperson, made the remarks while addressing people in his constituency.

The Botswana politician said the erection of an electric fence along the border would curb the spread of foot and mouth disease.

Mr Guma-Moyo claimed that Zimbabwe was reluctant to fight the spread of the disease leaving Botswana with no option but to erect the fence.

Cde Mguni, who is also the MP for Mangwe, queried the rationale behind Mr Guma-Moyo’s sentiments, saying they were uncalled for and anti-African.“Mr Samson Guma-Moyo attended his primary school at Tshitshi area in Plumtree, but surprisingly today he is the one clamouring for the erection of an electric fence between Zimbabwe and Botswana. This is foreign to our culture as Africans and we do not condone it,” he said.

Cde Mguni said communities staying along the Zimbabwe-Botswana border are one people who are related and have a lot in common.

“I would like to urge Mr Guma-Moyo to desist from this Western culture. We should not copy the United States of America’s idea of putting a border wall on its border with Mexico when we are actually one people who are related. In our case, you find a local chief married to a woman on the other side of the border and then you want to put a fence between them? Surely we should not start something that we will not manage to handle,” he said.

The Zimbabwe Government has expressed misgivings about the project arguing that it will become a human barrier instead of controlling livestock movement.

Botswana has constantly blamed stray Zimbabwe livestock for the spread of foot and mouth diseases, which it argues, affects its beef exports to the European Union (EU).

Last week, Mr Guma-Moyo requested the Botswana government to re-visit the controversial proposal to stop animals from straying. He appealed to his country’s Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama to construct the fence.

He said the fence would be ideal to control the movement of particularly cattle which cross from Zimbabwe.

The Botswana government announced a shoot-to-kill policy on stray Zimbabwe cattle.

Already hundreds of Zimbabwe cattle have been gunned down after straying into Botswana. Between January and April this year, 68 cattle all valued at $35 000 from Nswazi area in Bulilima district were shot dead in Botswana.

The Zimbabwean Government has already started holding meetings to conscientise villagers from Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North provinces on the Botswana shoot to kill policy which is expected to come into effect on June 1.

The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development responsible for Livestock Paddy Zhanda recently told farmers in Mangwe that the Government could not stop their Botswana counterparts from implementing this policy but could only educate locals on its effects.

He advised farmers along the border line to closely monitor their cattle to stop them from straying into the neighbouring country.

The country has about 90 000 cattle along the Botswana-Zimbabwe border. — @mashnets