Kabulabula — Hordes of Zambezi residents flocked to Kabulabula in the Kabbe South constituency of the Zambezi region on Friday morning to get a share of buffalo meat. This is after about 117 buffaloes had drowned when they were chased by a pride of lions from the Botswana side.
Most people, including government officials, left their work, with some driving over 90 kilometres in the hope of getting a share of the carcasses floating in the Chobe River. However, unlike in 2018 when over 400 buffaloes drowned in the same area, people had a free lunch as they were free to take buffalo meat for themselves with no hindrance.
Officials from the environment ministry stated that members of the Kabulabula Conservancy would get priority.
Zambezi Chief Control Warden Morgan Saisai said this was done because the resources belong to the conservancy.
"The beneficiaries are members of the Kabulabula Conservancy. The decision is to distribute the buffaloes so that 67 will remain in the conservancy, while the 50 will go to the general public," he stated.
The decision, however, angered the public, who had driven to the scene very early as they felt it was unjust and that resources belong to everyone. Nevertheless, Saisai maintained that the public had to respect the decision.
"We want to request the public to respect where they are. They are in other people's kraal. In future, people should not just come when they hear such things. Those who are denying conservancies an existence, what do they want here?" he questioned sarcastically.
"It is important that we look after the resources, and benefit from them. Government has a policy which empowers people to do so," added Saisai.
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It was after members of the conservancy were given their quota that the public was permitted to scrounge for the remaining buffaloes. However, given that people turned up in big numbers, most walked away empty-handed.
Kabulabula Conservancy chairperson Justin Mulenamaswe described the buffalo stampede as "a great loss to the conservancy", as they form part of their source of income when sold.
When asked what this loss means for the tourism industry in particular, the environment ministry's spokesperson Romeo Muyunda yesterday said losing such a huge number of buffaloes is regrettable for the two countries whose tourism sector is mainly dependent on wildlife.
"We have a conservancy which generates income from sustainable wildlife utilisation and the tourism enterprise. However, natural phenomena such as this are part of the system. Moving forward, we focus on initiatives to continue conservation for the benefit of our people," he stated.
