President Ramaphosa tells of his love for cattle as a child and their treasure for a heritage beholden in African culture, health, wealth, divination and their spiritual connection to our ancestors and God.
In Cattle of the Ages: Ankole cattle in South Africa, Ramaphosa divulges how his father, Ramaphosa Senior, bequeathed him a herd to tend when he left to look for work in Johannesburg at a time South Africa imbibed in apartheid.
Unfortunately, the herd perished, but the junior Ramaphosa’s penchant rekindled when he visited President Museveni’s farm in 2003. Already of immense political and business influence, he had revived the long family tradition of cattle farming. His visit to Uganda only re-energised his entrepreneurial resolve to introduce Ankole cows to his Ntaba Nyoni cattle farm and Phala Phala Wildlife farm where they add immense value to his tourism business.
But getting the animals to South Africa in 2007 was an odyssey of an endeavour not for the thin-pocketed or faint-hearted. It required embryo fertilisation of livestock under quarantine in Uganda, then transfer to Kenya for further quarantine, monitoring, and observation before shipment.
The lengthy process is standard procedure to prevent exporting disease but has paid off. Ankole cows have not disappointed either. Ramaphosa has one of the best Ankole breeds in the world, as other farmers in South Africa follow in his footsteps. The beasts are a marvel sought after by big bucks’ farmers, more for game farming, trade and tourism, than for milk or meat, as is the case in Uganda.
The Ankole Cattle Breeders Society of South Africa, established in 2018, is doing an excellent job. They have ring-fenced the livestock industry around the new breed to protect and propagate them for business.
Farming around Ankole cows is very organised, as the new breed shows immense business viability given its ambience in size, colour and general appearance. The population of about 800 animals currently in the country is DNA sequenced, coded with details of each cow entered into a book.
When one’s animal goes missing, it can be tracked to its owner unless killed for consumption under mysterious circumstances. The cows have names too, such as King Kabaka, Queen of Sheba, Sanyu, Akello, Mukisa, Malaika, Juba, Amina, Mpendo and Bint, hitting home to where they originate.
In 2021, The Ankole Cattle Breeders Society held the first auction of this flavour de jour breed. To the astonishment of many, one bull made news, breaking, or setting a record when it fetched 3 million Rands, about Shs 690 million. In another auction in March this year, President Ramaphosa, the biggest Ankole cattle farmer, fetched more than 10 million Rands, translating to about Shs 2.3 billion, for a handful of cows.
In repeated rendition on June 18 this year, a third auction held on Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala Wildlife farm, smashed another record. Of the 200 livestock put up for auction, 21 million Rands was collected, translating to Shs 4.9 billion. President Ramaphosa earned Rand 2.37 million, about Shs 600 million.
The lingering question, however, is, why is this Ankole breed surpasses the treasure of the already existing breeds, particularly the local Nguni breed?
Jacques Malan, the president of The Ankole Cattle Breeders Society, admits that these animals are a rare breed, never seen before in the southern hemisphere.
The breed’s beauty, disease resistance, climate resilience and adaptation, and tourism appeal, begets all the endearment. The aesthetics in their long horns, unique skin, and regal appearance give Ankole cows a place of grace and glamour among other breeds.
To catapult their extant value, Ankole cow farmers in South Africa already see the potential of factoring the breed into cultural events, such as Lobola (kwanjula) negotiations where the Nguni breed has been symbolic for centuries. Whether this will appease more than agitates, only time can reveal.
But where there is promise, there is peril. Whereas Ankole cows have become a phenomenon talked about in every nook and cranny, their rosy image as presented in Uganda’s legendary Bihogo the beloved cow of the Bachwezi dynasty, is beginning to fade. Their breeders, Ramaphosa inclusive, face scorn from animal rights activists for how rare animal species are being bred for trophy hunting.
In 2020, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), a USA-based NGO, accused Ramaphosa of “breeding and selling animals to be gunned down by tourists who have more money than morals.”
The beasts are also in the limelight after news emerging that a burglary at Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala in 2020 allegedly stole $4 million. The connection to this incident seems farfetched, but South Africans—including politicians of such spot and stripe—believe that big money honchos are laundering money using Ankole cows as pretext to do dirty business including evading tax.
A top government spymaster has filed a lawsuit, accusing Ramaphosa of managing a cover-up of the burglary and of ordering his Presidential Protection Unit to release the culprits on top of paying them not to leak information. A videoclip of the burglary, allegedly retrieved from his CCTV camera, has since gone viral on social media, fomenting every speculation.
Whereas these allegations are damaging and threatening Ramaphosa’s presidency if found culpable, the June Ankole cow auction on his Phala Phala farm where the burglary happened, went ahead. The auction was a success, but a section of South Africans feels he should not have done it amidst investigations against him.
The author lives in South Africa, where he is enlisted for a Management of Technology and Innovation MSc at Da Vinci Institute for Technology Management.