Kgomo Khumo team cleans Tswapong
Pini Bothoko | Monday October 30, 2023 06:00
Upon realising a rise in cattle rustling in 2018, the Botswana Police Service (BPS) launched anti-cattle theft campaigns to curb the scourge. According to the police, stock theft in the Central District especially in Mahalapye, Palapye and Tswapong areas is on the rise as evidenced by the string of arrests made public by the police through their Facebook page as a way of sending a clear message to stock theft syndicates. Despite the daily airings of the arrests on the police Facebook page, the message seems to be falling on deaf ears as more arrests of stock theft criminals who most of the times are caught red-handed with meat or cattle are a daily occurrence. Stock theft has become rampant and difficult to contain. The crime has left many farmers empty-handed, especially rural communities that largely depend on rearing livestock for a living. The Kgomokhumo operation is expected to provide a panacea to the troubles faced by the villagers.
The BPS said the criminals are well-organised with proper organisational structures just like regular companies with employers and employees. In their crackdown on stock theft syndicates, Kgomokhumo operatives recently apprehended butchery owners and street vendors with suspected stolen carcasses. The BPS public relations officer, Assistant Commissioner Dipheko Motube said at the beginning of the operation they aimed at identifying stock theft syndicates and their market and they have since achieved that as evidenced by the string of arrests. He stated that since they started the operation in the area, they have arrested 66 people involving 58 livestock, mostly cattle. He said 12 people have already been convicted and are serving prison terms ranging between five to 12 years with more cases still before courts. “Some cases are still ongoing with suspects still on bail while others are still in custody. We have started to deliver on our objectives and it is evident as we continue to arrest more suspects; have identified and we continue to dismantle stock theft syndicates and take them before court,” he said.
Furthermore, Motube revealed to have since established that young men aged less than 30, who are usually unemployed or working as herdsmen, steal their bosses’ livestock and sell to stock thieves as their prime suspects. “It’s a syndicate of herdsmen, stock theft criminals who have partnerships with butchery owners and street vendors as they supply them with carcasses. Herdsmen steal their bosses' cattle, they would advice their bosses to take time to brand calves in order to steal them because they know that their bosses do not know their animals.As for stock theft criminals, we have observed that they hang around grazing areas to rustle cattle,” Motube said.
He said in Tswapong area they have established that stock thieves are young school dropouts who spend most of their time idling in cattle posts looking for cattle to pounce on either to sell to butcheries or start rearing. He said the criminals target animals such as cattle, donkeys and goats. He said what hurts the most is that they steal people’s cattle, slaughter them and sell them cheap to butcheries or street vendors revealing that a whole cow can be sold for P1, 300. “Recently, we arrested stock thieves in Palapye after they sold each thigh cattle at P250 and the rest of the meat at P800 to street vendors. How can a whole cow be sold at P1, 300? This is cruelty, stealing someone’s cow to sell it that cheap. Stock theft will not easily end soon because such criminals have a ready market being butcheries and street vendors,” he said. He stated that beef products are in demand and stock theft has become a well paying job as the demand for meat remains high on a daily basis.
Motube said there are too many of these informal sector cooks and they buy a lot of meat on a daily basis and this pushes demand up. He revealed that they continue to register more convictions through the Magistrate’s Courts or Customary Courts in Tswapong villages in which stock theft criminals were sentenced to prison terms for different cases of stealing stock. “In most of these cases, the criminals were caught red-handed with stolen livestock, at times with the carcasses or biltong which they failed to account for. In the recent arrest, the younger person was a 19-year-old boy, Alvin Gobuiwang of Kalanke ward, Mosolotshane village, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment with his co-accused, Gaolatlhe Phamodi (30) of Moloi ward still in Mosolotshane for stealing a goat and a donkey,” Motube said. A family of three was recently nabbed in Lerala village.