‘Faeces war’ raises stink for Kezi family

By Danisa Masuku

A family from Sontala Ward 12 in Kezi under Chief Bango’s area is accusing one of theirs of setting up a homestead in an area where they have been defecating for generations.

Out of anger, two sisters Deliwe and Sizoluhle let loose their cattle into their brother — Mhlabeni Maphosa’s farming area to graze on his crop. As such, he has no harvest to talk of this coming season.

“My maize crop was at knee level and my sisters complained bitterly that I set up my homestead where they poop.

They revenged by letting loose their cattle into my farm land,” said Mhlabeni.

A source said the sisters’ fury bordered on allegations that he bewitched them using the poop he found when he set up his new home.

The village head was approached to mediate on the matter. Secretary to the chief, Peter Dube said the sisters’ argument was that they were “stranded with nowhere to relieve ourselves.”

Sizoluhle told B-Metro that they were now forced to go long distances just to relieve themselves.

“Now we have no choice but to walk long distances to find a bushy area to relieve ourselves. And we face challenges when we are visited by relatives,” she said.

According to Unicef, 40 percent of rural folk in Zimbabwe practise open defecation. A 2015 Ministry of Health report indicated that diarrhoeal diseases were the most prevalent with nearly 300 000 cases reported since the beginning of the year and 323 deaths in the same period.