Sell the goats. That's the advice of experts overseeing the disastrous Makana Goat Project which, since its inception in 2007, has been beset by infighting and alleged financial mismanagement.
Sell the goats. That's the advice of experts overseeing the disastrous Makana Goat Project which, since its inception in 2007, has been beset by infighting and alleged financial mismanagement.
And councillors and officials, despairing at the time and money they say has been wasted on the project, agree. With the project's head revealing that only 44 of the original herd of 175 remain, and the funding coming to an end, Thina Sinako, a support programme run in partnership with the Eastern Cape's Department of Local Economic Development, says the Makana Goat Co-operative must cut its losses and sell the animals that are left.
This, according to Thina Sinako, would go some way towards paying back the R850 000 that funders were demanding be recovered from the failed project. And while the project chairman, Mike Mamkeli, insists it has a promising future, and blames a commercial farmer for the goats' deaths, a new report paints a very different picture.
After the Economic Development, Tourism and Heritage Portfolio Committee heard in October that the number of goats had dropped by 72% since their arrival in 2009, a risk assessment report was commissioned. And the portfolio committee heard last week that heartwater disease – a tick-borne disease particularly affecting imported breeds of sheep and goats – had killed the animals.
"It started while the goats were still in Gletwyn Farm," the report stated. According to the report, the goats had been removed from Gletwyn Farm last year and arrived in Inneskilling Farm in the first week of October. There, 10 goats died.
Makana's local economic development director, Riana Meiring, said a Thina Sinako agricultural expert who visited the project on 14 October had observed that the goats were in poor physical condition; that there was no evidence of a regular dipping programme to prevent heartwater disease; and that there was "a distinct lack of ownership" of the goats. He advised that the goats be removed from Inneskilling.
On 15 October, Meiring said, the goats were taken to a commercial farmer, who signed a three-month contract to care for them. The goats were returned towards the end of January and, after Mamkele alleged that the farmer had not properly cared for the goats, a veterinarian had been sent out to assess them.
The vet had found that the main problems were foot rot and heartwater disease – "and that does not happen over three months," Meiring said. She said the veterinarian rated the condition of the goats as ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 out of 5. The rating for a healthy goat should be 3 or more.
The risk assessment report also identified stock theft and "group divergence" as problems in the project. The latter referred to infighting that had resulted in different factions within the project. The report revealed that 175 goats and 55 kids had arrived on Glewtyn Farm in 2009, making up a total number of 230. By October last year, only 64 were left; thus 166 goats had died while in the care of the members of the co-operative.
"There is one mortality since they arrived at the commercial farmer on 19 October 2010," the report stated.
The project's term ended on 30 November and Thina Sinako has asked for a closing-out report from its beneficiaries. This is to include a verification of expenditure since the inception of the project and indicate what will become of the goats.
This report must be submitted to Thina Sinako at the end of this month, in preparation for a final report by an appointed auditor. Meiring said Thina Sinako had advised the project management to sell the goats, so they could use the money to help pay back the R850 000 that needed to be recovered from the project.
The saying "time is money" was pertinent when Meiring suggested that the time spent by Makana Municipality, Cacadu District Municipality and the Department of Agriculture could be converted to money.
This, she said, could go some way towards paying back the amount to be recovered. According to this month's progress report, the time sheets for the in-kind contribution made by Meiring have been finalised and submitted to Thina Sinako. Time sheets for the department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Development Specialist from Cacadu District Municipality were to have been finalised on 24 January.
Councillors and officials expressed their frustration the project's disastrous outcome. "We have tried our level best to assist the project. We have tried our level best to advise these people but all was in vain," said Councillor Thandeka Veliti at last week's portfolio committee meeting.
She said there were victims within the project who were still in the dark, as well as officials and politicians who had been unfairly tarnished by their association with the project. Municipal Manager, Ntombi Baart, proposed that the municipality issue a public statement, to inform all the beneficiaries that Thina Sinako had asked the project to compile a close-out report, and to make clear what the implications of this were.
