MANGWELE – Saturday, September 6 2002 is imprinted in the memory of Makana Nefolovhodwe forever.

Makana (33), of Mangwele, in Nzhelele area said beef was his favourite meat for his entire life, until last week Friday in the evening, when he saw his favourite meat glowing in a bowl.

"I was busy discussing some events with my mother, when my younger brother came to inform us that the uncooked meat, was glowing in the sitting room. At first we thought he was joking, but when we went to investigate, we were shocked to confirm the incident," said Makana.

Makana, a member of the South African National Defence Force, attached to 15 SAI, said he only heard of stories of glowing meat from the radio and newspapers. However, he said he never thought that it will ever happen to him, considering that he buys meat from professional butcheries.

Makana said that he bought the meat for R50 from one of the butcheries in Thohoyandou on the same day of the incident. He bought two pieces, a piece for R20 and one for R30. The R20 piece was cooked the same while the R30 piece was reserved for the following day. To their surprise, the reserved piece started glowing. Now that they have already eaten the cooked piece of meat, Makana was not sure of the consequences. Whether the meat might glow inside their stomachs or not is another daunting possible for them.

However, at the time of going to press, nothing was wrong with the three family members, who ate the cooked meat. According to Makana, the family has decided not to take beef anymore. "As a person who drinks liquor, I always prefer beef at our braai. But from that day, I was forced to part with my favourite meal, beef," said Makana.

There were also several incidents of glowing meat in the far north area. Some happened in Vuwani, Lwamondo and Tshitereke during the past years. Researchers from Pretoria laboratory found that the meat was contaminated with bacteria, which caused it to glow during the night. However, the findings revealed that such meat was not harmful to the human body.

Makana had given the other piece of the glowing meat to the dogs.