Rural family in shock as devastating fire destroys livestock

By SIKHO NTSHOBANE

A rural family in Cofimvaba has been left to count their losses after 39 sheep and young lambs were burnt to death in a fire during the early hours of Friday morning.

The incident took place at Nxe-lesa village near Ncora in Cofimvaba at around 3am. The dead animals were locked inside a kraal at the time and there is some mystery as to how the fire started.

Spokesman for the family, Lunga Mabhija, said 28 sheep, 12 lambs and four goats died instantly while an additional 11 sheep had to be put down on the recommendation of a veterinary doctor due to the severity of their burns.

A further 73 sheep suffered burns but survived.

“We are still in shock,” said Mabhija yesterday.

He estimated the value of loss to be around R162000.

Mabhija, who works in East London, said a young boy in the family had noticed the fire.

“He peered through the window after hearing sounds of goats bleating and lambs crying while the dogs were also barking ferociously. When he looked, he saw that there was a big flame outside.”

On further inspection, the youngster had reportedly discovered that the family’s kraal was on fire and used a panga to hack open the locked gate to free the ani-mals.

Mabhija said most of the dead sheep were pregnant ewes.

“Even those that survived were coughing from inhaling smoke and the vet had to give them some medication,” he added.

He said they had also reported the matter to the police in Cofim-vaba as they suspected the fire had been started deliberately as there were signs that someone had used petrol to start the fire.

The Dispatch was yesterday unable to verify this with police at the time of writing.

Mabhija said this was not the first incident to affect them as two cows were stolen last year. While one was recovered, the other was still missing.

“Stock theft is rife here in the village but we can’t speculate because we don’t know.” — sikhon@dispatch.co.za