The sick goats removed from a controversial farming project and taken to 'hospital' to recover have been returned to their owners three months later… in a worse state than when they left.
The sick goats removed from a controversial farming project and taken to 'hospital' to recover have been returned to their owners three months later… in a worse state than when they left.
That’s according to Chairperson of the Makana Goat Farmers’ Co-operative, Mike Mamkeli, who said one goat was so sick it had to be put down.
After a protracted build-up – it took three years from the time funds were received – the project finally got under way in July last year, when 175 goats were delivered. As the term of the agricultural empowerment project drew to a close in November – a mere four months later – a flurry of activity included a visit in October to the project by Thina Sinako, a support programme run in partnership with the Eastern Cape’s Department of Local Economic Development.
It had pumped R4 million into the project in 2007. A report from Thina Sinako’s agricultural expert stated that the goats were in poor physical condition and that if the current status quo were to remain, the goats “could all be dead by the end of the year”. It was resolved that the goats be removed until 18 January and that a commercial farmer be paid to help restore them to health.
At the project’s management committee meeting held on Thursday, 9 December, it was agreed that the goats would be taken to Inneskilling Farm, once they were discharged from 'hospital'.
Plans were that Inneskilling Farm, behind Extension 7, would house a milking parlour. It is one of the eight farms within the Makana municipal area integrated into the project. The other farms were Koodoovale, Pershoek, Gletwyn, Broughton, Salemville, Greenfield and Alicedale.
Mamkeli claims that of the 72 goats sent away to recover, only 44 had survived – and that those still alive were sicker than ever. “Thina Sinako and the municipality took the decision to pay the commercial farmer R12 000, thinking he would treat the goats better than we could,” Mamkeli said. “But we were shocked by the deteriorated physical health of the goats on their return.”
When Mamkeli brought one of the goats to the City Hall to show the municipality’s local economic development department the shocking state it was in, Grocott’s Mail was there. The animal looked lifeless, there was a large tick on one of its legs and it had an enlarged stomach.
Mamkeli explained that this was because it was suffering from heartwater disease. An often fatal tick-borne disease of domestic and wild ruminants (cows, sheep, cattle) in sub-Saharan Africa, heartwater
particularly affects imported breeds of sheep and goats, especially Angoras, according to information from the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute on the website PubMed.
The original herd was made up of three different breeds: Saanens and Toggenbergs, both originally from Switzerland, and the British Alpine, indigenous to Britain.
“That is why I wanted to show them [the municipality]so they could see how they looked after they came back from the commercial farmer,” he said. “Even the beneficiaries were not happy to get the goats back
looking like that, after so much money was paid. It was clear to them that the goats were not cared for.” Mamkeli said the project’s beneficiaries, the community goat farmers, hoped to restore the goats’ health through a programme that included medication and dipping.
He said the future of the project looked promising and depended on team work, so the project could move forward. According to Thina Sinako, the project’s term ended on 30 November last year. They have asked the project’s beneficiaries to compile a closing-out report, which includes accounting for expenditure since the project’s inception.
Makana’s local economic development director, Riana Meiring, confirmed that the goats had been removed on the advice of the Thina Sinako agricultural expert, because of their poor condition. However, the expert had since resigned from Thina Sinako and it was therefore impossible to get a comparative report on the goats’ condition on their return.
"The Municipality did, however, procure the services of a vet to provide us with a report on the condition of the goats on 28 January 2011,” Meiring said. “The municipality has not yet received the report.” Meiring said it was difficult to determine how many of the goats had died in the care of the commercial farmer, because they were already infected with heartwater disease when they were put in the farmer’s care.
