The Sunday News
Mhlupheki Dube
MATABELELAND North province like its sister province Matabeleland South thrives on the livestock side of agriculture with crop production coming to augment mostly the food basket.
Livestock is the mainstay and chief economic driver of almost every household while natural resources like wildlife, timber and minerals also help to make the economy of the province tick.
It is therefore undisputed that if one wants to make investments that will impact on the people’s lives in Matabeleland North he/she should invest in the livestock value chain.
Surprisingly though this is an area which is least chartered and hence the province stands as a good example of an area with predominantly poor breeds and poor infrastructure for livestock business.
This can be easily illustrated by the fact that from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls, an area which spans around 435km, there is not even one functioning abattoir. This means that the whole province is missing one vital link for the livestock value chain.
An abattoir for those that may not be aware is important to cattle producers and beef consumers on two levels.
Firstly it provides a market for livestock farmers and usually abattoirs provide better prices because they will be doing meat wholesaling to butchery operators and large chain supermarkets.
Secondly an abattoir ensures that all communities within its catchment eat healthy meat as they only sell inspected and approved meat.
There are Government meat inspectors and graders that inspect all the carcasses of animals that are slaughtered in abattoirs.
This is why we get condemned carcasses as some of the animals slaughtered will be unfit for human consumption. Now if a whole province has no operational abattoir it means most if not all the butcheries especially in small towns and growth points are selling meat from animals that are slaughtered under trees in unsanitary conditions and people are sold unhealthy meat.
I am aware that there are meat inspectors in some small towns who inspect carcasses slaughtered from these slaughter poles but in most cases these are just green officers from colleges some of them not even sure how many legs a beef animals has.
Not surprisingly you hardly get any carcasses being condemned in these slaughter poles.
Butcheries in small towns and growth points have become infamous for selling all kinds of meat, even carcasses from highway carnages.
In fact just this past week I witnessed farmers in one district gladly skinning carcasses of three animals that had died of an unconfirmed disease and they were happily calling a local butchery operator to come and collect the meat for sale. My point here is that it is unhealthy to have a whole province which has no access to an abattoir and yet there are butcheries dotted around the districts. Even in terms of business, honestly how can big chain supermarkets in Hwange and Victoria Falls for example get their supplies from as far as Bulawayo and Plumtree when there are businesspeople who can easily invest in an abattoir?
It’s about time businesspeople stopped thinking only in terms of grocery shops and bottle stores and exploit such a business opportunity. Even local authorities in these districts can consider operating an abattoir as a strategic business unit. In Kwekwe town one of the abattoirs is operated by a local authority and in Bulawayo one of the giant abattoirs was once run by the city council itself.
If for example one local authority in Lupane district can construct and operate an abattoir most of their financial nightmares will be erased.
Is it not possible for council to go into a partnership with a business operator who will provide the capital while they provide land and work out operating terms?
While logistics can be debated what cannot be debated is that Matabeleland North province needs an abattoir to service livestock farmers and in my books Lupane will be the most ideal and central place for an abattoir.
An abattoir will definitely improve the livestock sales and prices within the province in general and district in particular. A whole province cannot be allowed to have its people consume beef that is slaughtered in stone age facilities that is simply unacceptable.
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