LIVESTOCK is the backbone of many rural communities and one significant evil confronting resource-poor farmers is stock theft.
Community policing and rapport with police need to be strengthened to combat this vice as it traumatises livestock owners because it is a direct threat to their economic survival and efforts to rebuild the national head.
Stock Theft is more severe on poor communal farmers who own small numbers of animals than on their commercial counterparts who have access to advanced security measures such as fences and electronic tags for their livestock, which makes them relatively harder to steal.
Farmers complain of theft of their cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and donkeys and most of them lack finances to restock. It also cripples their farming plans, food security, livelihoods and incomes.
For the past several days, Focus On Crime has been inundated by calls from farmers in resettlement areas bitter about the re-emergence of a well-organised syndicate of stock thieves.
The farmers are saying these thieves who are wreaking havoc in surrounding farms, appear to have sound financial and logistical backing. The animals are stolen from village kraals and cattle posts and fears are that these criminals could be armed.
The thieves pounce at night, and use the similar modus operandi of targeting bovines from cattle pens — then drive them to the outskirts of the villages — where they will slaughter and skin them ready for sell to butcheries and backyard take-away operators who offer a ready market.
Members of the community suspect that these unscrupulous business people orchestrate the stock thefts and that they are involved in registering, transporting and marketing stolen animals.
To fend off these thieves, farmers need to take up cattle branding seriously. The veterinary services and other stakeholders are working with the police in raising awareness on the importance of cattle branding. The branding system, together with the deterrent measures through stiffer penalties is expected to combat stock theft.
It is also important for livestock owners to form anti-stock theft units in their localities.
Farmers should enhance their local community policing by patrolling their areas at night. It is advisable for farmers to establish their kraals in one area for easy nightly patrol by local security apparatus. The farmers must work with the local police and anti-stock theft unit, and not against them.
An area with a fully-fledged anti-stock theft unit is likely to record minimum stock theft cases. Stock thieves benefit when the relationship between the owners and the police is poor.
Livestock owners need to immediately report all livestock theft cases to enable law enforcement agencies to make follow up before they are slaughtered. In cases where farmers are able to recover their animals themselves, they will still need to inform the investigating officer.
Farmers should not report false stock theft cases to police for the sake of conning insurance. Valuable time is being wasted on such cases that could have been spent on genuine stock theft cases.
Stock theft cases are sometimes withdrawn due to lack of interest or reluctance on the part of some complainants to attend court proceedings. Farmers must show interest in solved cases and attend court cases until the end. However, closely related to this, is the tedious and slow prosecution process involved.
Farmers should also be aware of some pointers to imminent community attacks such as unknown persons roaming in the area; unknown vehicles, tracks or camping activities in the area. They should also look out for changes in the behaviour of local employees; unexplainable deaths of guard or community dogs and unknown persons visiting your property without good reason.
Farmers must foster good relationships with employees and have copies of their identity documents. They must reward employees for useful hints and information, secure their homesteads and keep all implements and tools that could be used as weapons, in safe places.
The should also change daily surveillance routines to avoid being predictable, while employees should be trained to pay attention to irregularities. Employees should follow up on suspicious activities at the farms.
