That is how government hopes to fix the country’s crime situation in so far as stock theft is concerned. When cattle thieves are threatened with the envisaged obscenity, so goes the theory, the farmer’s nightmare will end. Farmers will have velvet dreams and live happily ever after. WRONG WAY!
For the avoidance of doubt, I am a farmer. As such, I am not impervious to the miseries wreaked upon the population by cattle theft. But I know that stock theft is not rampant because of under-punishment. The offence carries a minimum mandatory sentence of five years imprisonment where extenuating circumstances do not exist. Stealing a cow is punished with equal severity as stealing a motor vehicle one hundred times its value. Stock theft is rampant because it is hardly ever punished and where it is, it takes forever to be. I travel the length and breadth of the country defending all kinds of charges, stock theft inclusive. Complainants grieve about trial delays, not the brevity of sentences. They say that it takes too long for trials to be finalised and that Courts, prosecutors, accused persons and their lawyers pervert justice through delays. They do have a point. If government is truly desirous of bringing stock theft under control, more resources should be devoted to that effort. More lawyers, magistrates, and police should be assigned to stock theft cases. Cattle rustlers must be safely in the slammer before the exhibit dies, before the magistrate resigns and before witnesses are struck by lightning with catastrophic consequences. The degree of enthusiasm visible in the war against poaching, of which I am an unwavering supporter, must be evident in the approach to stock theft.
