Boteti farmers blamed for harbouring rustlers

Stock theft remains one of the greatest threats to the long-term sustainability of livestock production in Botswana but it is of great concern that some farmers are alleged to be harbouring criminals.

In an interview with Mmegi, the Botswana Police Service (BPS)’ public relations officer, assistant commissioner Dipheko Motube who was heading the operation revealed that a number of stock theft syndicates managed to get away unpunished as farmers were not forthcoming in reporting stock theft incidents. Motube said there were incidents in which they would identify stock theft incidents as the police only for some farmers to later withdraw such cases stating reasons of not having intentions of pursuing them. “We have established that the majority of farmers in Boteti have the habit of hiding theft incidents. They did very little in helping us to curb stock theft in the area.