WINDHOEK – The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has not yet begun culling game as announced a fortnight ago to assist the 460 000 Namibians severely affected by drought.
The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Uahekua Herunga, yesterday said his ministry is ready to supervise the exercise and added that unfortunately delays between the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and Meatco are being experienced and that is why the exercise could not start as planned. He explained that the meat would be processed at Meatco factories and the company will also be in charge of handing the canned meat over to the OPM. “Meatco is supposed to hire a company to do the shooting under our supervision and then report to the OPM,” he said. Asked why the ministry which has its own game rangers cannot shoot the allocated game, he replied: “Since Meatco will have to do the canning, we do not want to be accused that not enough meat was delivered or that we gave them bad meat. Our work is to avail the right places where the game is, supervise the shooting and then count that the number of wild animals to be shot are correct.”
Two weeks ago Herunga announced the ministry would begin culling the wild animals in the country’s national parks as part of the national drought relief effort. Plans for the culling of game follow a directive by President Hifikepunye Pohamba to provide meat to all people who qualify for drought relief aid.
Approached for comment, Nangula Mbako the Permanent Secretary in the OPM said: “There were some technicalities, but I thought they were resolved.” Without elaborating she promised to get back to New Era once she finds out why there is a delay in commencing with the exercise.
Meatco’s Manager for Communications and Marketing, Mario Poolman confirmed that the government requested assistance from the company and the Abattoir Association of Namibia to help with the processing of the game meat for drought relief purposes, adding that the issue is still under discussion and that final quotations need to be sent to government by Meatco and the other abattoirs involved for the game to be culled and the meat to be processed.
According to him the process has already been approved by the government and the cost approval should be a mere formality.
Poolman further said the plan was discussed in the presence of the Directorate of Veterinary Services (DVS), which acts as the competent authority on behalf of the European Union to ensure abattoirs and processors who export to Europe (and other high value markets) adhere to EU requirements.
“The whole process, from the hunting of the animals to the processing and packaging of the final product will be done under DVS supervision to make sure that the abattoirs and processors involved do not contravene any export regulations/requirements,” he explained.
Clarifying Meatco’s involvement, Poolman said the Meatco Oshakati abattoir would slaughter a variety of 150 wild animals from the Etosha National Park. “The animals will be hunted in the park and the carcasses brought to Meatco’s Oshakati abattoir. At the abattoir the carcass will be sawn up into smaller pieces and packed into boxes for the government. The whole process from hunting to packing will happen under DVS supervision. Please note we are not doing any canning of these products. The carcasses will only be processed into smaller cuts, but no canning,” he reiterated.
The abattoirs in the region (and members of the Abattoir Association of Namibia) are Brukarros and Mariental abattoirs, which will further process the carcasses into smaller cuts and package the product. This will also happen under DVS supervision.
According to Poolman, the Oshakati abattoir has a capacity to slaughter and debone 160 cattle carcasses every two days. In addition, he said the game carcass processing requested by government needs only a part of the Oshakati factory’s processing capacity, cold storage, sawing the carcasses into smaller parts and packaging. “This takes a lot less time than slaughtering the animals and deboning them before packaging, including the fact that current volumes at the Oshakati factory are currently very low. The impact will be minimal on our slaughter capacity at the Oshakati factory,” he said.
However, Herunga confirmed the culling of game in the national parks would start in the south and then move to the north once Meatco and the OPM finalise the whole process. “All the wild animals to be culled in the south will be springbok, because the parks there cater for smaller game. While in the northern parks, we will avail bigger game such as eland, zebra and oryx,” Herunga explained. He said about 150 springbok will be shot in the Hardap National Park and another 100 will be culled in the //Karas Region’s Naute National Park. In the Kunene Region another 100 springbok will also be culled to assist drought victims. Since the Etosha National Park has bigger game, he said about 25 zebra will be culled around the Karoo Game Reserve, while 25 will be culled in the Hobatere Game Reserve in the Kunene Region. Culling will at this stage only take place in four game parks.
The Ministry of Fisheries has also been directed to provide dried and canned fish to the affected communities. Pohamba has declared the drought a national emergency after an initial assessment found 331 000 people were affected. Meanwhile, the figure has risen to over 460 000 and is on the rise.
The national strategic food reserves are also depleted and there are only 10 000 metric tons of maize left which has already been secured by the OPM for distribution to many communities affected by the drought. To date the government has distributed over 50 000 metric tons of maize to needy communities.
By Albertina Nakale