What happened?
MBOMBELA – Ms Marie Buys, her husband Doep and an employee were travelling from the city to their second property in Kaapsehoop on Thursday evening.
The couple said the road was busy with runners, pedestrians and cattle on both sides. After passing Lakeview Lodge, Buys said she noticed a jogger with a headlamp coming towards her.
“I was already going slowly but the light caused me to further reduce speed to about five kilometres per hour. I think the cattle may have been startled by the pedestrians on the other side of the road and ran across suddenly,” she explained.
I did not hit them very hard. The bigger one of the two knocked the smaller one onto the bonnet and the side-view mirror on the driver’s side was also damaged. The cows walked away but I am not sure if they were unharmed.” No one in the car was injured.
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What does the SPCA say?
SPCA Nelspruit investigator, Ms Marcelle Hofmann, said the City of Mbombela Local Municipality needs to put facilities in place to curb the problem.
“Often the animals are not even tagged, which means that people cannot claim from the owner when they are involved in an accident. It is not fair towards the animals or the public that the owners do not take responsibility,” Hoffman said.
What does the City of Mbombela say?
According to municipal spokesman, Mr Joseph Ngala, the municipality has responded to the issue by distributing notices throughout the city.
Owners are obligated to exercise control over their animals by ensuring that they do not stray onto the public roads (which is) in contravention of the National Road Traffic Act. In most cases, the straying animals lack identification is also an offence and punishable by law,” the notice read.
The notice added that non-adherence may lead to the impounding of the animals and the issuing of a minimum find of R1 000.
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