EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer
DIKGONNYE: Stock-theft in Botswana is increasingly becoming a serious concern and the police are having a hard time trying to arrest the situation.
Advertisement
Advertise Here
Unemployed young men and boys of school going age are busy cutting out a career in cattle rustling. They are part of an organised cartel of criminals whose main job is to steal cattle from farms and communal freehold pastures. Sometimes they are bold enough to raid a kraal. They then put their brands on the stolen cattle. A police source says the cartel operate in Kweneng to Kgatleng, covering almost all the cattle-posts in the two districts. Sometimes their 'operations' take them beyond the Dibete cordon fence into the expansive Central District.
Though it is not clear where the cartel's base is, investigations by police and Bakgatla royals and tribesmen have unearthed a man they suspect to be the mastermind. In most the of arrests and interrogations, one name kept coming up.
Bakgatla paramount chief, Kgafela II says the suspects inform them that they have been sent by a 56-year-old man (name withheld). The mastermind is said to have a cunning mind like a jackal. He recruits young boys to do his dirty jobs, while he stays in the shadows. That is why, according to Kgafela, the man has been able to evade the law all this time, despite his involvement in the theft of livestock ranging from goats to cattle in Kweneng, Kgatleng and the Central District. It is said the man used to work for the BCL mine in Selebi-Phikwe. But currently he heads a powerful crime empire that he has running in a decade. It is said his empire is so well organised and extends to the Central District where he connives with other livestock thieves. The rustlers do intensive 'research work' or what in the intelligence lingua franca is called reconnaissance, to identify kraals they can steal cattle from. Normally, they steal young calves just before they are branded. "He has been stealing from my father's kraal. When they see a calf without a mark, they take it and brand it.
Normally you would find that he uses his syndicate members' brand (Tshipi). He would then later brand it with his own mark. In the royal kraal, we found about four cattle with brand marks that belong to his acolytes. He is just a young boy who would normally not have as much property as so many cattle and a brand mark, yet he does. They go around branding people's cattle. We caught this guy and whipped him, even his parents urged us to whip him up because they have tried to talk him out of stealing, but he would not listen," said Kgafela.
He said the syndicate has caused terror among farmers, especially in the western and eastern side of Madikwe River in Kgatleng, where they steal livestock in cattle posts like Mfetlhedi, Legokonyane, Monametsane and Moduwane.
"Bakgatla have been crying gore ba ruela mo ganong la gagwe. He has served six years in jail for stock theft after quitting his job in the BCL mine," he said.
An angry Kgafela said that people are fed up with the suspect who is implicated in many cases but has not been incarcerated. "He is arrogant and uses loopholes in the law to get out of trouble. He has stolen cattle from the kraals of my royal uncle, Ray Molomo.
You can see that this guy is a persistently arrogant thief who fears no one at all in his pursuits," he said.
For his part, Molomo, a former cabinet minister said that he found two of his cows rotting and being gorged by vultures. "I was told by my herdsmen that his (suspect's) car was seen passing by and later gun shots were heard the following day," he said. He suspects the criminal could have played a hand in killing his livestock.
Mochudi police have disclosed that working in concert with morafe (Bakgatla), they were able to arrest three suspects in connection with stock theft. Acting station commander, Assistant Superintendent Nkape Kealotswe said they arrested a 39-year-old man in Matlhagare, next to Artesia in connection with theft of a herd of 11 cattle. The other suspect said to be the mastermind of the cattle rustling is still at large.
"On the other hand, we have arrested two men in connection with stealing 15 goats. Of the 15, 14 belong to one 45-year-old woman in Matlhagare while the other one belongs to her neighbour. We are sill looking for a third suspect still in connection with this theft," he said.
Records at the Magistrates Court in Mochudi show that from 2003 to date, the suspected mastermind was brought before the court to answer for eight cases of stealing livestock. However he was acquitted in all cases.
In one of the cases, before principal magistrate Kepaletswe Somolekae, the accused told court that investigators were "not making any progress in this matter which was registered last year and I have to come to court time and again, without any progress. It is becoming costly for me.
My request is that charges against me be withdrawn until the state is ready to proceed". The magistrate discharged the case and ordered that it be opened should any evidence be found.
In an earlier interview with Mmegi, the suspected mastermind denied that he is a stock thief. He said he ekes out a living as an ordinary farmer - rearing cattle and goats.
However, Mmusi Kgafela, brother to Bakgatla paramount chief insists that the suspect is a livestock thief who has developed a tendency of using young boys to steal people's animals.
"He even has some cases of stock theft in South Africa," said Mmusi Kgafela.
The police have said they have noticed a trend where stock theft suspects prefer to have their cases heard in modern courts, instead of the customary courts.
Police Commissioner, Thebeyame Tsimako has said the suspects have realised that chiefs at customary courts know about livestock (marks and colours) very well and that is why they prefer modern courts. "They insisted on having their cases heard before the magistrate courts where they know the cases would drag for long as there is a long queue of cases in the courts," he explained.
Tsimako has said that government is trying to find a way to speedily deal with stock theft cases. "We would have specialised courts for this," he said. Molomo agrees with Tsimako that it is difficult to hold a trial for stock theft in modern courts. "In a customary court, you can explain that you confirmed that it was a bull because of the size of the head (it has to be bigger than a cow's).
On the other hand you can't say that in a magistrate court. A case can be dismissed just on those grounds. In an effort to demonstrate that calves belonged to some cows, an owner is said to have told a magistrate that the cows fondled them (calves) and went on to breast feed them. However, the magistrate said that the cows were just being sympathetic to the calves. That is why I think we need to have Batswana magistrates who know much about livestock to preside over stock theft," he said.
Source:mmegi.bw/
No comments:
Post a Comment