South Africa (Bloemfontein): Farmers in Bloemfontein, South Africa, are suffering due to continued stock theft. These incidents are coming to light as the festivals, Christmas and New Year draw near. The farmers are worried about the situation.
The executive authority scheduled a meeting in Bloemfontein, where he met with commonage farmers on Tuesday to discuss measures that can be taken to work with the South Africa Police Station to curb stock theft in the area.
Issues raised at the meeting include patrollers, foreign nationals’ involvement in stock theft, cases that are not concluded or withdrawn for different reasons, Ladybrand pound that is far from retrieved animals, etc.
The MEC McQueen Letsoha-Mathae urged the livestock owners to implement and comply with the Animal Identification Act without failure, as this assists police officers in tracking and tracing stolen livestock.
Moreover, they should desist from hiring people who don’t have documents as herdsmen because most prevalent cases involve foreign nationals, both documented and undocumented.
The MEC further informed the meeting that land invasion is an additional problem for livestock because of the grazing capacity that is occupied by informal settlements and stock theft as well.
On cross-border grazing, the MEC emphasized that cross-border grazing poses problems such as overgrazing on the South African side of the border with Lesotho, diseases spread among South African livestock, and even the theft of livestock from South African owners.
Furthermore, the MEC clarified the role the municipality should play by enforcing bylaws and making use of DDM to address some of the issues that are facing society. Another challenge that the MEC raised that must be attended to is the network connection, which, in some areas, is unavailable for farmers to report crimes.
The gathering was also informed that issues of patrollers and Community Policing Forum (CPF) are still addressed for issues of stipend at MINMEC level, but for now, almost R3 million will be released by National to buy reflectors, torches and boots, and roads to commonages will be addressed after the farmers have identified.
