The Eastern Cape MEC for rural development and agrarian reform is planning to meet with top national and provincial police over rising stock theft in the province.
Mlibo Qoboshiyane said yesterday, at his department’s post-policy speech business breakfast hosted by the Daily Dispatch, that he would sit down with national commissioner General Kgomotso Phahlane and his provincial counterpart Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga.
This was in response to a plea from OR Tambo District Farmers’ Association member Bandile Gqwetha, who also represents the EC Red Meat Producers Association. He called for government intervention, saying farmers were on the brink of taking the law into their own hands to protect themselves.
“Farmers and livestock owners have had enough and it is not like they do not have means and ways to protect themselves.
“But we plead with government to look into this issue,” Gqwetha told Qoboshiyane.
The MEC acknowledged that the problem was so big that the national government had set up a commission to look into it.
He made an undertaking to seek a meeting with Phahlane and Ntshinga to draw up a plan to stop livestock theft.
“We simply cannot have people boko haram animals of other individuals where they come to your homestead or farm armed and they say ‘if you want to come out but we are here to take your livestock’,” said Qoboshiyane.
“People are helpless in this situation and we have tried to develop basic foundational law to say people are not allowed to transport livestock after a particular time without processed permits but thieves are not interested in that, they come at night and take.”
According to Qoboshiyane, it was difficult to tackle the problem head-on and bring it to a complete end because some police officers were “part of the scheme”, hence the meeting with Phahlane and Ntshinga was paramount.
The livestock scourge, said Qoboshiyane, was most prevalent in the areas between Lesotho and South Africa.
The national government had established a commission to deal with stock theft between Sterkspruit, Matatiele and Lesotho.
But cross-border theft does not only affect the Eastern Cape – KwaZulu-Natal is also hit hard by cross-border crimes between that province and Mozambique.
On Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma visited Manguzi police station in northern KZN as part of a government campaign to intensify the fight against cross-border crime in the Umkhanyakude, Hlabisa and Jozini municipalities.
“Rural communities are under a huge yoke of poverty and have to bear the burden of stock theft and car hijackings,” KZN premier Willies Mchunu has said.
The ANCYL in that region have even said that they want a Donald Trump-style resolution, calling for the South African government to erect a “huge wall” to prevent any further cross-border crime. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za
MEC to engage top cops on stock theft
Mlibo Qoboshiyane said yesterday, at his department’s post-policy speech business breakfast hosted by the Daily Dispatch, that he would sit down with national commissioner General Kgomotso Phahlane and his provincial counterpart Lieutenant-General Liziwe Ntshinga.
This was in response to a plea from OR Tambo District Farmers’ Association member Bandile Gqwetha, who also represents the EC Red Meat Producers Association. He called for government intervention, saying farmers were on the brink of taking the law into their own hands to protect themselves.
“Farmers and livestock owners have had enough and it is not like they do not have means and ways to protect themselves.
“But we plead with government to look into this issue,” Gqwetha told Qoboshiyane.
The MEC acknowledged that the problem was so big that the national government had set up a commission to look into it.
He made an undertaking to seek a meeting with Phahlane and Ntshinga to draw up a plan to stop livestock theft.
“We simply cannot have people boko haram animals of other individuals where they come to your homestead or farm armed and they say ‘if you want to come out but we are here to take your livestock’,” said Qoboshiyane.
“People are helpless in this situation and we have tried to develop basic foundational law to say people are not allowed to transport livestock after a particular time without processed permits but thieves are not interested in that, they come at night and take.”
According to Qoboshiyane, it was difficult to tackle the problem head-on and bring it to a complete end because some police officers were “part of the scheme”, hence the meeting with Phahlane and Ntshinga was paramount.
The livestock scourge, said Qoboshiyane, was most prevalent in the areas between Lesotho and South Africa.
The national government had established a commission to deal with stock theft between Sterkspruit, Matatiele and Lesotho.
But cross-border theft does not only affect the Eastern Cape – KwaZulu-Natal is also hit hard by cross-border crimes between that province and Mozambique.
On Tuesday, President Jacob Zuma visited Manguzi police station in northern KZN as part of a government campaign to intensify the fight against cross-border crime in the Umkhanyakude, Hlabisa and Jozini municipalities.
“Rural communities are under a huge yoke of poverty and have to bear the burden of stock theft and car hijackings,” KZN premier Willies Mchunu has said.
The ANCYL in that region have even said that they want a Donald Trump-style resolution, calling for the South African government to erect a “huge wall” to prevent any further cross-border crime. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za
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