Urgent meeting requested on welfare issues on Kwa pig farms

MOSSEL BAY NEWS - As an ongoing animal welfare crisis on a pig farm in KwaNonqaba threatens to reach breaking point, several farmers have said they are doing their best to look after their animals in conditions that are almost impossible to manage.

The Garden Route SPCA said it has conducted inspections and given aid and education to the farmers in KwaNonqaba over the last few years, but the adverse weather that hit the area in recent months has exacerbated the already dire situation.

The SPCA had described the area in a video posted to its Facebook page in late July as a 'disaster area'. This video was filmed at the farm following a few days of heavy rain.

This week the SPCA requested an urgent meeting with the Mossel Bay Municipality. The pig farmers said they have requested a meeting as well.

The SPCA has said there are serious ongoing welfare issues and that the unacceptable conditions persist. It said the matter must be resolved, as the pigs cannot be left to suffer.

The Garden Route SPCA found these pigs knee-deep in mud and faeces on 25 July. Photo: Garden Route SPCA

Some farmers spoke to Mossel Bay Advertiser and said between 20 and 30 of them were sharing the land, with about 200 pigs among them.

Magda Taylor and Matthews Ngcana said the municipality had moved them onto the land in 2023, and they have had issues with it from the start.

The farms were on a property between Mayixhale Street and the N2, but were moved about a kilometre away at the end of October 2023 following a court order issued by the Cape Town High Court on 17 June 2020, ordering the municipality to comply with relevant by-laws, including the Nuisance By-law, and to remove the pig farms from the current premises within a period of two years.

In 2020, the Advertiser quoted Geoff van Rensburg, chairperson of the owners' association at the N2 Industrial Park, as saying that they had no choice but to pursue legal action due to numerous complaints from investors and owners.

Taylor said two main issues were that the property was on an incline, and that the soil was more like clay, so that whenever it rains, the ground becomes waterlogged, turning into deep mud.

Kurt Remas of the Garden Route SPCA Mossel Bay in some deep mud in one of the pigpens in KwaNonqaba. Photo: Chelsea Pieterse

"The water collects on our farm and has nowhere to go, because there is no drainage. It can sometimes take up to three months to fully dry."

“It is heart-sore for me to see our pigs in this situation, but we do not have the resources to keep the ground dry when it rains,” she said.

Another owner, who would only go by Nmtuyedwa, said it was even difficult to get the vehicles transporting food down to the property as the road becomes dangerous when it is muddy.

Luzuko Jama, also a farmer, reiterated this, stating his bakkie had actually slipped down the hill while he was driving along the narrow road to the farm earlier in the week.

He said he was luckily not harmed, and they were able to pull his vehicle up onto the road using another bakkie, but that the experience was terrifying.

Garden Route SPCA Mossel Bay's Wally Wagenaar and Kurt Remas brought some fresh food for the pigs on 30 July. Photo: Chelsea Pieterse

He added that when the road is in this condition, farmers usually park their vehicles at the start of the road and have to walk at least 1km in the mud with provisions for the pigs. Some of the farmers are elderly.

Farmer Thembelani Toyini said these muddy conditions sometimes make it impossible to reach the pigs, and that some owners have injured themselves trying to navigate the property to take care of their animals.

Questions were sent to the municipality in late July regarding the current situation. It responded on 4 August with the following: "The SPCA is requested to contact the municipality directly about this matter."

Several more questions were sent on 19 August following the request for a meeting. A response will be added online as soon as it is received.

It has been reported that as of 19 August, several of the farmers have started repairing their pens in line with the requirements given to them by the SPCA, which the SPCA said is a positive development.

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