By Sizalobuhle Khumalo

Villagers leaving in areas surrounding Hwange National Park are facing a bleak 2019/2019 farming season owing to elephants that have literally camped in their villages as a result of the water crisis.

Molly Dube, a villager from Jabula told the news crew that she was not even thinking of tilling the land this year.

“I will not be excited if the rains will come nor will I be disturbed if it does not. For us here the major problems are the elephants that destroy our crops.

“Year in and out our crops continue to be destroyed by elephants. And most people have got to a stage where they have given up on farming,” she said with tears flowing down her cheeks.

 She added: “I do not know if the Parks authorities have nowhere to take these animals to. They have become a nuisance and are turning us into destitute.”

Villager after villager told of how they have become neighbours with herds of the marauding elephants.

“We no longer have a social life. We hardly leave our homes in fear of the elephants. We do not know what to do,” said another villager.

Another villager Jabulani Sibanda from Mbizha area said he had not tilled his land for the past 15 years due to the marauding elephants.

His livestock was also mauled by lions.

“I have not cultivated my land for the past 15 years because of elephants. They destroy our crops. More so I had about 15 cattle but when six where killed by lions in a space of two days, I had no option but to sell the remainder.

“Look at me now, I am a beggar yet I was the envy of many. All my pension I worked for at the Colliery was destroyed by the very animals that we have protected over the years from poachers,” said a teary Sibanda.

Efforts to get a comment from Parks authorities were fruitless.