10 Nov 2019

Kgosi Join Ngala of Mabolwe knows the agony  of going to a cattle kraal in the evening in anticipation of arrival of his cattle from pastures, albeit in vain. 

He has lived to see faces of Batswana in despair as thousands of their cattle get smuggled into Zimbabwe year in and year out.

It happened not only once, not twice, but many times and it harrowed his heart to a pulp. He still recalls vividly the years in which he lost his cattle and never to recover any.

The Mabolwe community leader recalls that he has lost 335 cattle to cross-border cattle rustlers between 1986 and 2012. Add 19 plus six calves in 2017. This year he has already lost six.

The septuagenarian said that the cross-border cattle theft started off at a low scale in the 1980s.

Farmers in Bobirwa, especially in villages bordering Zimbabwe, tell saddening tales of spending a whole day tending to their cattle under the scorching sun, confine them to their kraals in the evening and retire for the night with hope for the next day, only to wake up to an empty kraal.

The BOPA crew recently undertook a tour of the villages to uncover the whole story, but what unraveled was a harrowing tale of cross-border stock theft.

The scourge can be pinned to a deluge of factors, among them animals that are let loose to roam next to the cordon fence that also acts as border line in some instances.

Sometimes this cordon fence is destroyed by elephants.

The Mabolwe chief took BOPA back in time of how his village started to experience cross-border stock theft and how the crime gradually gained momentum to a point where some kraals were left desolate.

Kgosi Ngala narrates the plight of a farmer in Bobirwa, especially those farming along the border line, who could be heart-wrenched to find cow bells lying hopelessly in the kraals, while the animals that used to rock them had migrated into Zimbabwe.

He tells of how the thieves initially took to donkey theft and gradually increased the rate at which they rustled the non-ruminant animal.

In fact, he claims that the donkeys, currently owned by his subjects, were bought from such far away villages as Tsetsebjwe, which is about 100km from Mabolwe.

From donkeys, the thieves then graduated to cattle and small stock and at a further alarming rate to boot.

The situation, he said, was rife at cattle posts of Mmajale on the eastern side of Mabolwe and Mokosho on the western side, where thieves went on a rampage.

Though Special Support Group (SSG) police unit and Botswana Defence Force (BDF) officers are on high alert along the border, patrolling with the help of community members, the village chief said it is a daunting task to keep the thieves at bay.

The community leader suspected that the thieves would spend time studying the farmers’ movements and would immediately pounce when the farmers let their cattle out of sight.

Kgosi Ngala describes how sometimes they could identify their cattle across the border and would be helpless as the thieves drive them further into Zimbabwe, while simultaneously mocking them by way of waving hands.

The Mabolwe chief said the stolen cattle are usually headed to a village called Shanyaugwe, where stubborn and dangerous thieves dwell.

Though they at times shared some parallel causes of events, Semolale police officers, who oversee the Semolale Policing Area, and farmers of Mabolwe at least have a point of convergence: that cattle rustlers are from Zimbabwe.

While the Mabolwe farmers list factors that aid cattle theft in their villages especially, and in the process censuring border patrol officers for not doing enough, police officers have come to the defence of the men in uniform.

They argue that while some farmers tend to their cattle with the seriousness expected of them, some leave their cattle to roam freely in areas where they are vulnerable to theft.

Ms Tshoganetso Mathora, chairperson of Mabolwe Village Development Committee (VDC), also painted a picture of widespread livestock theft, especially by Zimbabweans.

Ms Mathora argues that the cattle theft cases opened in Zimbabwe never bear fruit.

In fact, she claims that stolen cattle crossed the border into Zimbabwe without a trace.

She claims that farmers are yet to be compensated for their livestock, even those that have been identified in Zimbabwe and sold there since they cannot be brought back in the wake of Foot and Mouth Disease.

However, the problem is not new. MSemolale Police Station commander, Superintendent Boipuso Baatweng concedes that stock theft in his policing area is of great concern. What worries Semolale police boss is that the crime, though committed in Botswana, against Batswana, the evidence lies on the other side of the border.

Supt Baatweng sais stock theft is not limited to villages lying along the border with Zimbabwe, but affects Bobirwa farmers in general.

He finds that some farmers relocated their cattle to cattle posts adjacent to the border because there are better astures there.

He finds that September was the month in which stock theft cases rose highest at his office, revealing that 43 cases were reported from January to September this year.

In the same period, 43 goats, 22 sheep and 16 donkeys were also smuggled to Zimbabwe.

Of the 416 stolen cattle, only 57 were recovered, but none of the donkeys and small stock.

Though he concedes that they have not made arrests in Botswana, Semolale police chief indicates that arrests were made in Zimbabwe.

Though he cannot commit to whether or not locals could be working with Zimbabweans to tip them off of patrols and other deterrents, Mr Baatweng does not rule out the possibility.

However, he refutes claims that stock has been stolen forcibly from herdsmen who were tending to them. He says that the rustled cattle are mostly those that are not tended to, but let loose to graze and moved close to the border.

In some incidents, Supt Baatweng says farmers cite fear of elephants as reasons why they cannot spend time in the bush tending to cattle. However, those who have legally acquired guns usually experience no trouble in following their stock into the pastures.

To try to stop the nagging cross- border cattle rustling scourge, Mr Baatweng says that they have established a district task team at Tuli Circle that deals with border patrols. The task team also educates farmers on the best way to care for their livestock.

Upon gathering information from the task team, some community members have reportedly formed clusters on tending to their cattle.

Other interventions include quarterly security bilateral meetings between Botswana Police officers and their Zimbabwe counterparts.

These meetings alternate between the two countries with the aim of helping iron out cross-border crime in general. ENDS