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Edgar Vhera

Agriculture Specialist Writer

STAKEHOLDERS in the livestock sector have called for concerted regular meat inspections and monitoring of sales to curtail the rising incidences of livestock thefts countrywide.

The call comes on the backdrop of recent cases of cattle theft with a Banket farmer in Mashonaland West losing 21 head of cattle, nine of which were later found slaughtered and a further five carcasses recovered in Bulawayo.

Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (LMAC) executive administrator, Dr Reneth Mano said the Government did the rightful thing to scratch value added tax (VAT) on live animal sales, as it was fermenting illegal trade, marketing and giving rise to increased incidence of cattle rustling.

“Regular inspections of all meat in every butchery and eating place should jointly be conducted by the anti-stock theft unit of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), Ministries of Agriculture and Health’s meat and abattoir inspectors with orders to destroy illegally cleared meats.

“Cattle farmers must beef up the security of their animals at night by having enhanced security,” he said.

Dr Mano said VAT on meat was only being collected on beef carcasses sold by monitored commercial meat wholesale abattoirs or sold through VAT registered supermarkets before Government moved in to scrap it.

“Licensed small and medium enterprise (SME) city retailers boycotted these VAT-collecting players and became the ‘no questions asked’ buyers from these underground routes to market for beef. Cattle rustlers now know that they have real bulk meat buying customers and therefore are stealing more cattle to sell to SME butcheries plus illegal meat vendors in their catchment areas,” Dr Mano added.

Meat industry expert and consultant, Mr Reginald Shoko, concurred saying the rising cases of cattle rustling in the country would continue as long as the illegal selling of meat on the streets and residential areas persisted unchecked.

“Cattle rustling is big business that is run by well-operated syndicates who unfortunately feed a ready market that buys the stolen meat and sells to residents.

“As long as the informal meat sector is not eradicated, cattle will continue to be stolen in huge numbers,” he said.

The informal meat sector thrives on uninspected meat, which poses serious health risks to consumers in the long run, as the stolen cattle may be infected with diseases that may then be passed onto humans.

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Abednico Ncube recently said police would soon come down not only on all cattle rustlers but also on residents who bought the meat, as well as middlemen comprising butcheries and street vendors.

“We will soon be visiting all butcheries around the city to establish the origins of the meat that they sell. We have already set up teams to monitor the movement of vehicles transporting cattle and anyone found in breach of this will face the full wrath of the law,” said Insp Ncube.

Government recently scrapped the 15 percent value added tax (VAT) on live animal sales in order to create an orderly marketing system and enhance farmers’ disposable income battered by the El-Nino induced drought.

Presenting the 2024 mid-term budget and economic review, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube said: “In order to encourage formal trade of meat products, I propose to exempt live cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and bovine semen from VAT. I also propose to exempt poultry meat and kapenta from VAT with effect from August 1, 2024.”