Cops Sell Free Govt Forms for $10

cattle

THE government will soon introduce electronic tagging of cattle in a development which is set to stamp out corruption in the marketing and movement of cattle.

A recent research on Zimbabwe's beef industry revealed that some police officers were in the habit of soliciting bribes from farmers for authorising the movement of their cattle to other regions.

According to government policy, police and veterinary officers are required to sanction the movement of cattle from one area to another.

"Almost all the farmers in the eight cattle producing provinces which we visited accused the police of demanding bribes before sanctioning any cattle movement. In some instances, some farmers were made to pay as much as $10 in order to obtain cattle clearance forms which are given free of charge," said Tausha Isaac, an research analytical officer with the Competition and Tariff Commission, which carried out the research.

Isaac said the farmers also accused the police of demanding food and transport from the farmers while they were on official duty.

Responding to the outcome of the study during the research's validation workshop in Bulawayo on Tuesday, Deputy minister of Agriculture Paddington Zhanda said government is set to start cattle electronic tagging in December in a bid to facilitate the hassle free movement of livestock.

"We are running some trials on electronic tagging in December. The electronic tagging will not need farmers to collect the police officers to clear their beats. All the cattle will now be in a database and farmers will have a bank card and sell their cattle electronically," said the deputy minister.

Zhanda said the data base will have all the individual details of every beast.

"So you do not need a witness anymore and anything which makes it very easy to transfer and market cattle," he said.

The deputy minister said the initiative will be launched in Matebeleland province.