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negatively affecting the livestock-restocking scheme.
According to Matabeleland North police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Siphiwe Makonese, villagers now fear for their lives as well as that of their livestock.
She said the villagers had approached the police seeking a lasting solution to the recurrent problem.”Marauding lions and hyenas have killed 19 cattle from 14 December to today and villagers are afraid that more will be killed,” she said.

Asst Insp Makonese said that the most affected villagers were those living in Chikandakubi, Milonga, Mununa and Jambezi.

“Some of the cattle, villagers said, were attacked in broad daylight in the presence of the herdmen who obviously ran away for dear life leaving the cattle at their mercy,” she said.
“We are glad, however, to note that the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers have moved into the area doing patrols tracking the problem animals.”
Meanwhile, Asst Insp Makonese said police in Jambezi have arrested a 38-year-old man, Harold Moyo, in a suspected case of poaching.

She said events leading to his arrest were that on 21 December, Moyo who was in the company of Khumbulani Sibanda, a fellow villager, went to the grazing area to check on their cattle.
“They then saw a male leopard near their cattle and set their dogs to attack it. They also armed themselves with logs and attacked it until it died. They then informed other villagers that they had killed a leopard,” said Asst Insp Makonese.

She said Sibanda then went and reported the matter to the police leading to Moyo’s arrest.
Asst Insp Makonese urged villagers to desist from taking the law into their own hands adding that there were relevant authorities that are supposed to deal with problem wild animals.
“Right now as police we are conducting outreach programmes educating the communities on the Wildlife Act as ignorance is not a defence,” she said.