Addressing the elephant in the room

The Namibia Industrial Development Agency (Nida) has replaced the manager of its elephant-infested Kavango Cattle Ranch farm, but workers, who lost a colleague to an elephant attack, say there are bigger issues at the site than leadership ineptitude.

Employees are refusing to return to the farm, citing lack of security and Nida management’s alleged refusal to pay danger allowance – leaving cattle without caretakers.

Acting farm manager John Alugodhi has been replaced after large livestock losses made headlines last week.

The ranch, which belongs to Nida, came under the spotlight when 20 cattle carcasses were discovered during a visit by the leadership of the Kavango West regional council last month.

“The current farm management has not been effective in terms of effectively and efficiently running the farm. We have therefore changed the farm manager to ensure effective coordination, monitoring, control, discipline and supervision of the farm and its employees as from 1 August,” Nida CEO Mihe Gaomab II said following a visit to the farm last week.

Goamab apologised for cattle losses suffered on the farm and said a full stock audit would be conducted.

“About the carcasses, we apologised to the regional leadership of Kavango West and admitted that there were cattle dying but that we plan to take a full stock audit immediately to assess factually the number and impact of casualty losses.”

Farm workers speak out

Ranch workers have spoken out about the multiple challenges they face.

Fences have to be fixed on a daily basis, they said, and cattle have to trek large distances in search of water.

“The presence of approximately 150 to 200 elephants on the farm has been a huge challenge on the cattle production plan on the farm as cattle were forced by the situation to freely roam the entire farm as most of the farm camps’ fences are down, despite how we tried to lift the fences on a daily basis from Monday to Sunday,” workers said.

According to them, the lack of working water points on the farm brought about instances where cattle and elephants had to compete for shared water points, and then conflict between the two sets of animals ensue.

“In some cases, submissive cattle are pushed [over by the elephants], leading to their deaths,” they said.

Production inputs lacking

Workers also bemoaned the lack of resources required to run the farm.

“Production inputs have been a challenge and we have been struggling to get inputs for us to run the farm effectively, efficiently and sustainably.

“Moreover, vehicles have been a challenge as they are old and funds to repair vehicles have been a challenge, making it difficult to transport farm workers to attend to cattle husbandry needs and farm maintenance promptly,” they said.

Workers added that strategies to deal with the problematic elephants had been drawn up and given to the agency’s management.

“Strategies were developed and communicated to senior management. No response has been forthcoming while the situation on the ground is worsening.”

They further said it was unfair to place the blame for the farm's problems on Alugodhi.

“It will be an oversight to place any blame on him.”

The former manager declined to comment on the matter.