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EAST LONDON - A troop of hungry monkeys is eating up the crops of small farmers in Scenery Park here, and there doesn't seem to be much the farmers can do about it.
Maize farmer Zingisa Rhwexu said yesterday that the monkeys had destroyed almost his entire crop this week. "I am not going to reap what I anticipated," said Rhwexu sadly. He said he had tried every trick in the book to keep the monkeys away from his mealies. A friend told him to build a scarecrow in each corner of his field as this would frighten the monkeys away. "The idea did not work," said Rhwexu. Within a short time the monkeys were playing on the scarecrows. Mziwadoda Sikwele said he had also lost his entire crop to the monkeys. "This has hit us hard," said Sikwele. "We are planting maize so that we don't have to buy so many groceries. We want to try and save money in January, but now it is going to be tough." Sikwele said all his attempts to trap the monkeys or chase them away had proved unsuccessful. He appealed to the East London Zoo to trap the monkeys and keep them at the zoo. However, East London Zoo head Nicol Roux said there was nothing much the zoo could do for the farmers. "The monkeys come to Scenery Park for the wild fruit they can find there," said Roux. He said that even if staff at the zoo trapped the monkeys and moved them to somewhere far away, this would not help the farmers because another group of monkeys would come looking for fruit in the area. "This is going to be a continuing problem for the farmers," Roux said. - ECN
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