What stinks?

Authorities in Cape Town launched an investigation Monday after a foul stench swept over the South African city.

City officials inspected sewage facilities for leaks and an environmental health team was activated before the source of the smell was discovered: a ship docked in the harbor carrying 19,000 live cattle from Brazil to Iraq.

Zahid Badroodien, the official in the mayor’s office in charge of water and sanitation, wrote on the social media site X, formerly Twitter, that investigators had confirmed that the source of the “sewage smell blanketing parts of the city” was the cattle ship.