'Wildlife officials can keep chickens, Bushmen can't'

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Botswana's Director of Wildlife Joseph Matlhare said yesterday in court that wildlife officials working in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve were allowed to keep chickens, but the Bushmen were not.

The government has maintained that domestic animals kept by some Bushmen could pass diseases to wildlife in the reserve, and that this was one reason why the Bushmen could not be allowed to stay in the reserve.

Matlhare admitted, however, that officials from the wildlife department who lived in the reserve were allowed to keep animals, as to do otherwise would not be 'practical'.