Gutu villagers, councillor clash over hyenas

Memory Rasa

GUTU – Gutu villagers are up in arms against Ward 16 councillor whom they accuse of not reporting hyenas which are terrorizing their livestock to the National Parks and Wildlife Management as they tasked him.

Mhuru and Mupanamombe villagers have threatened to give councillor Raphios Kubiku a vote of no confidence saying he has failed to take their problems to higher offices since they elected him into office in 2013.

Kubiku, who is also Chief Kubiku, is accused of not doing anything to the matter and, to date, the hyenas have killed over 20 goats, three cattle and several dogs in the area.

“We do not know what to do anymore; livestock is our only source of wealth. Hyenas are killing animals and the councillor is not doing anything about it though we tasked him to report the matter to National Parks. The issue might not be a big deal to someone living in town but to us here in rural areas livestock is our source of wealth. We have been waiting to get feedback from the councillor for more than two months,” one angry villager said.

Efforts to get comment from kubiku were fruitless by the time of going to print. Gutu Rural District Council (RDC) chief executive officer Alexander Mutembwa, however, said they have reported the matter to the National Parks and assured villagers that the matter will be addressed soon.

“We received complaints from villagers in Ward 16 but we face network challenges to get hold of the councillor. We therefore texted him messages and we are yet to get response from him. The issue of hyenas, however, was reported to national Parks sometime in May this year and we hope the problem will be addressed soon,” said Mutembwa.

An official from national Parks said they will attend to the problem once they get official communication from the council.

“We kill these hyenas by trapping and poisoning; we have killed more than 20 and disposed them by burning. We have received complaints from villagers but we can only act after a formal communication from council. We have been to Ward 3 in Ndahwi, Nzombe, Wards 12 and 13 respectively. The problem is that some chiefs do not cooperate, said a National Parks official.news