Simbarashe Mtembo

TWO NATIONS REPORTER

BEITBRIDGE-Matebeleland South Province loses an average of five thousand hectares of trees annually to deforestation, Permanent Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Lathiso Dhlamini-Maseko has said.

She said this at a National Tree Planting Program held at Lutumba Seventh Day Adventist Primary School in Beitbridge last week.

The event was attended by Beitbridge East MP, Ruth Mavhungu Maboyi, Beitbridge West, MP Albert Ngulube, Environmental Management Agency (EMA), Forestry Commission, Chief Sitaudze and Beitbridge Rural District Council (RDC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) among others.

Maseko who gave a speech on behalf of the First Lady, Auxillia Mnangagwa, said the cutting down of trees in Matebeleland South is causing animal extinction and affecting livestock which is the source of livelihood for most families in the province.

Chief Sitaudze buttressed Maseko’s statement and said anyone caught cutting down trees will be fined by village heads.

“When the trees grow we obtain fruits, Mopani worms and oxygen from them and most of us are earning a living from this. We are forbidding people from cutting down trees,” said Chief Sitaudze

Ngulube urged villagers to plant drought resistant trees as Mpani, Baobab and Amarula trees.