Villagers get 'maggots' as donation

Villagers in Gwanda received a donation of 15 kgs rotten meat stashed in a pet food bag.

Martin Simmons, a safari farmer from West Nicholson had pledged to donate game meat for the community to feast on at the official opening of a classroom block at Mabheka Secondary school last Wednesday.

His Jonsyl ranch is situated about 20 kilometers from the school.

"He promised to give us meat, only to receive a sack of rotten meat from him," said Danile Mabanda a villager.

The councillor for the area, Anna Choeni said the issue became a spectacle.

"I called villagers who live close to the farmer to come and witness this rotten meat," Choeni said.

A Mr Chauke who spoke to B-Metro on behalf of Simmons said it was a mistake.

"Martin went hunting with one member of the community hoping to shoot an animal for the community event, this was done all in the spirit of hunting but unfortunately they didn't get anything from their expedition and decided to get some meat that we had reserved for the guys that were repairing our fence without checking its condition.

"When I got wind of the information that the meat was rotten and I called Martin and he was very apologetic. We usually make donations to the community for such gatherings and in the event we fail to get game meat we usually give them a goat or sheep but on this occasion we couldn't do that because the animals are in a bad state and we had just dosed them. We regret the turn of events but it wasn't done deliberately," said Chauke.