Family of a suspected stock thief gang have reported to police that one of their group went missing while they were busy stealing sheep.
Four of the group were arrested after one of the group earlier reported his brother went missing while they were stealing sheep at Bare Acres Farm outside Stutterheim.
The four were arrested on Thursday night in connection with stock theft at the farm.
This was after the owner of the farm, Greg Miles, opened a case against the man who reported to Bolo police that his brother, Odwa Maseti, had gone missing. Maseti’s brother apparently “ confessed” in video footage taken by Miles to stealing the sheep. The Daily Dispatch has seen the video.
The recorded “confession” was made at Miles’s farm on Wednesday, when the suspect went to show the police where he last saw Odwa on the 1,200-hectare farm on February 13.
King William’s Town police spokesperson Captain Siphokazi Mawisa said the suspect told the police that his brother disappeared in the “mist” at the farm last week.
Mawisa said the four aged 23 to 28 were arrested on Thursday evening.
Miles said he was surprised when he got a call from the police who were standing at his gate with a suspect on Wednesday night. They wanted to look for Odwa Maseti. Miles said he opened a case of stock theft against Maseti, and four others in connection with four missing sheep.
Miles believed the missing person case was a smokescreen to throw the police off track, as there was an ongoing case in the regional court that he opened against the same group for allegedly stealing six sheep from him in March 2018.
“In fact, the one who is missing had turned state witness. Something happened,” he claimed.
Earlier on Thursday Mawisa said the suspects would be arrested once the investigation was completed. “The fact that the brother admitted [to being at Miles’s farm to steal sheep], the SAPS does not take it as a confession because there’s a formal procedure to be followed.
On Wednesday the Bolo police and the Uitenhage K 9 Unit police launched a search for the missing man. The search was called off on Thursday.
In an interview on Thursday at his farm, 37km from Stutterheim, Miles said in 2018 alone, 60 of his sheep were stolen. Farmers in the Bolo area were under siege from rampant stock thieves.
Miles’s neighbour, George Viljoen, of Prairie Farm, said 20 sheep were stolen at his farm over the festive period and he had become resigned.
“I don’t report it anymore because the cases never go to court and the police who take statements can’t even write a Sub A [now grade 1] essay,” said Viljoen. Neighbour, Ian Cowthorn, of Strauss Farm, said thieves stole 40 of his sheep in 2018 and three in 2019...