21 Aug 2017

Monwane, a small village about 15km off the Thebephatshwa turn along the Molepolole-Letlhakeng road, is grappling with high stocktheft cases.

Farmers in the area are playing cat and mouse with stock thieves.

In an interview with Kgosi Mokwaledi Masono, who was installed September last year, he said he has already seen enough to realise that stocktheft was a cancer eating his village.

“I have been at the helm of this village for less than a year, but stocktheft is already one of the crimes that give me sleepless nights. Mostly the perpetrators are local people with the collaboration of a few outsiders,” he said.

Kgosi Masono said stocktheft was exacerbated by butchery owners who were willing buyers from the thieves to the extent that some even made deals with such thieves to be their main suppliers.

He said such butchery owners were mostly in Molepolole and Mogoditshane. Kgosi Masono said what scared him most was that despite their efforts at fighting it, stocktheft in the area seemed to be getting worse rather than decreasing.

He said they had called numerous kgotla meetings to discuss the issue, and that the stocktheft unit of Botswana Police Service also addressed the issue with the community a number of times.

“We also fear that such crime would soon give our village, which has known peace since its establishment, a bad name. We do not desire our village to be known as the hub of stocktheft,” he said.

Kgosi Masono also revealed that some of the stock thieves stole cattle from far flung areas only to come and slaughter them in the surroundings of his village.

He said the thieves were difficult to catch, and that law enforcement officers only found animal hides and heads that the thieves had no use of.

“The thieves construct makeshift kraals deep in the bush where they slaughter the animals, then they lie low for some time before they strike again,” he said.

Kgosi Masono noted that the latest case registered was last week when a man was caught with seven stolen cattle and two horses before he could slaughter them.

For his part, Molepolole Police Station Commander, Superintendent Charles Mbengwa said most of what they had before them were enquiries that they were following.

“Enquiries is whereby you find animal hides and other remains left in the bush whose origins you haven’t yet established. We currently have about four cases from the area, two are registered at the magistrate’s courts and two are still under investigation,” he said.

Superintendent Mbengwa, however, indicated that despite the low cases with them, they were aware of floods of complaints from villagers that the rate was very high.

He said they have already patrolled the area a number of times with helicopters to establish the existence of any makeshift kraals, but said unfortunately they didn’t come up with anything. ENDS