Charge butchery owners for stocktheft - Masunga

KOPANO OLESITSE
Correspondent | Wednesday March 16, 2011 00:00

 

Kgosi Masunga said that in most cases, butchery owners encourage stocktheft because they buy the stolen stock, mostly cattle. The CCA mostly deals with cases of stock theft appeals from the lower customary courts. 'This is a problem because we have also realised that most people simply do not protect their stock. They must hire herdsmen to take care of their stock.

Also these herdsmen must be paid appropriately because if you fail to pay employees, they are more likely to steal. The police must also open charges against those butchery owners buying stolen cattle,' lashed out Masunga. He added that butchery owners must always buy cattle or stock at the courts of law. 'Both the buyer and seller must sell before the courts. Also when buying stock, brand certificates from the owner must be produced as proof of ownership.  Cattle must also have ear tags to mark them when sold. A normal cow would cost you around P1,500 to P2,000 but a stolen cow is sold for just P700 or even P500,' added Masunga.

Meanwhile, from March 21, the CCA will be presiding over 20 appeal cases for the whole week. 'Out of these cases, eight are civil cases, while 12 are criminal case appeals. In criminal cases, eight of them involve stocktheft, two involve assault cases and one case of common nuisance. In civil appeals, they mostly involve debts,' outlined Masunga.

However, last week the CCA dismissed a case in which a complainant demanded 16 cattle as compensation for his damaged farm. 'The lower customary court of Mopipi ruled that the complainant be compensated with 16 cattle for damage to the farm but we dismissed the case because that court did not satisfy itself that the defendant's cattle ate from his farm. There was also no evidence that the cattle ate from the seven-hectare farm. The judgment also made us doubt that it was proper to charge the defendant 16 cattle as compensation,' said Masunga.

Masunga said that the customary court of Mopipi should have sent investigators to examine the alleged damage.

'The complainant stated in his arguments that he ploughed the seven hector farm at P500 per hectare. So when we calculated the expenses that he alleged, they added up to P3,500 far much lower than the 16 beasts he demanded.  The whole case was just not adding up, so we decided to dismiss it altogether,' concluded Masunga.