The local government in Central Equatoria State’s Lainya County over the weekend started enforcing a local order to tax cattle, grazing, and the movement of cattle.
The local authorities believe the order which was issued on 4 March by Commissioner Robert Lasu will mitigate tensions between the farmers in the county and pastoralists and also generate revenue for the county government.
The commissioner told Radio Tamazuj that the order is aimed at commercializing cattle movement since they have been around the county for over 14 years without any tax levied on them by the local government.
“Cattle have been here for the last 14 years, so we looked into the need to commercialize them. They cannot just come and go without the government benefiting. Also, most of them (herders) are South Sudanese and can go wherever they want within the territory of South Sudan. So, we looked into it and said we must impose some taxes on them so that at least the government can benefit,” Lasu explained. “The reason (taxation) is to control and minimize the raiding. Also, by taxing cattle, we can count how many cows individuals own, their types and colors, and so forth. We can also identify a specific area for grazing far from farmlands so that there is peaceful co-existence between farmers and cattle keepers.”
“Let the people of Lainya County be very calm because this order I issued will bring the situation to normalcy because the local people have been in severe poverty and have not been cultivating because cattle destroy their crops,” he added.
The order prescribes five taxes, including the pass permit fee, the monthly grazing fee, the cow auction fee, the agriculture farmland fee, and the monthly security fee.
The presence of cattle herders in the Equatoria region has often caused conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. President Salva Kiir has repeatedly issued directives for pastoralists and their herds to return to their places of origin, but they have not been obeyed or enforced.