Fury after KZN man builds kraal, keeps 15 cattle in suburban backyard

A Richards Bay resident has fallen out of favour with his neighbours and the uMhlathuze Municipality for having a kraal filled with 15 cattle in his backyard. Picture: Supplied

A Richards Bay resident has fallen out of favour with his neighbours and the uMhlathuze Municipality for having a kraal filled with 15 cattle in his backyard. Picture: Supplied

Published May 24, 2019

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Durban - A Richards Bay resident has fallen out of favour with his neighbours and the uMhlathuze Municipality for having a kraal filled with 15 cattle in his backyard. The municipality has served him with a notice to get rid of the kraal and the cattle or face legal action.

Residents of Brackenham in Richards Bay had been trying to get rid of the kraal and cattle for six months.

uMhlathuze Municipality spokesperson Mdu Ncalane said they had visited the site and found that the complaint was valid.

“The owner of the house in question is found to have been violating the Nuisance By-law for keeping large animals in a suburb, not in an agricultural or grazing zone,” Ncalane said.

Ncalane said the owner of the property was served with a notice to rectify the matter on May 6 and if he failed to comply within 30 days of the notice being served, legal action would be taken against him.

Brackenham ward 26 councillor Lesley Josephs was at the forefront of the community’s fight.

Josephs had been working on the issue for the last six months and had taken the matter to the municipality.

“The owner of the cattle first kept them in his backyard behind a precast wall.

“Then, after he was asked to remove the cattle, he made a kraal on municipal land at least half a kilometre from his home,” Josephs said.

He said the kraal was about 8x8m in size and the owner had 15 cattle.

The councillor said residents were angry because the cattle roamed the streets unattended and left trails of cow dung everywhere they went.

“One cow went into someone’s swimming pool,” he said.

He said Brackenham was a

multiracial suburb and he had been a councillor there for 37 years.

National Council of SPCAs’ communications unit manager Meg Wilson said they were concerned about whether the welfare of the animals was in adherence to the Animals Protection Act.

They advocate the Five Freedoms: freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition, freedom to express normal behaviour, freedom from discomfort, freedom from fear and distress and freedom from pain, injury or disease.

Daily News

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