17 May 2017

Takatokwane police station commander, Superintendent Ocean Maraganyane has said Kweneng District continues to grapple with a high number of stocktheft, which he said was escalated by failure of some farmers to take preventative measures.

Speaking at heads of department meeting to brief Takatokwane constituency MP, Mr Ngaka Ngaka of challenges various departments face in the area on May 15, from them Superintendent Maraganyane said some factors that influenced the high stocktheft was failure by farmers to brand their calves well in time, leading to thieves stealing such calves and putting their own brands on them, then killing their mothers to frustrate any efforts for a DNA test during investigations.

“DNA in cattle can only be traced as far as the mothers, so the thieves are very clever and know that by killing the mothers they have wiped out any chances of a possible DNA trace,” he said.

Superintendent Maraganyane said most farmers, especially in his area of jurisdiction, came from as far as Ramotswa and Thamaga, and so they were hardly at the cattle-posts, meaning that the cattle stayed with the herders most of the time, giving them ample time to steal them.

Superintendent Maraganyane also said efforts to fight stocktheft in the area was frustrated by the fact that their informers were afraid to stand before the courts of law to give evidence even when they knew the habitual stock thieves.

“We have also had a number of cases where people report their cattle stolen, and when time for court appearance comes they withdraw the cases.

As the police we have the authority to refuse such withdrawals, but then the complainants will not turn up leading to a high rate of stocktheft case dismissals,” he said.

Superintendent Maraganyane also listed other factors such as failure to report stray cattle, late reporting of stolen cattle by farmers as well as lack of resources and manpower to do police visibility at the cattleposts.

Meanwhile the Letlhakeng Sub -district Council matron, Ms Reginah Mere said the decision to have villages of Motokwe, Khekhenye and Tsetseng accessing health services at Kgalagadi District while they are located in Kweneng was taken at ministerial level looking at the distance the residents have to travel to Letlhakeng.

She said it would be unfortunate if residents of such villages were discriminated by the health facilities in Kgalagadi.

Ms Mere was responding after Mr Ngaka informed her that residents of the three villages complained of unfair treatment when they sought services at heath facilities in villages such as Kang and Hukuntsi.

Mr Ngaka also said that one of the issues that people complained much about at kgotla meetings was specialisation by social workers, saying ordinary citizens could not distinguish between social welfare officers and community development officers.

He urged officers to always take time to explain such arrangements to the people as complaints were sometimes due to lack of understanding.

Mr Ngaka also informed the officers of a need for cohesion with his office, saying that failure to work together would affect service delivery in the area, and that his office was always open for any officer who needed his help.

He said during his address of kgotla meetings, pertinent complaints from the electorates were mainly on stocktheft, social welfare and health services provision.

He said the briefings by officers ahead of the kgotla meetings would enable him to answer some of the questions in cases where officers were held up to attend meetings. ENDS