Action plan after cows hacked

PLANS are afoot to stop stock theft in its tracks in Kwelerha near East London.

This comes after last week’s incident in Zozo location, Kwelerha, where farmer Xolani Haya, who owns close to 150 livestock, found three of his cows lying butchered near a rural dip tank, with one cow so severely wounded with its tail cut off that it died as a result.

Two heifers and two bulls valued at R43 000 were driven by thieves for 5km and were then hacked, apparently with an axe, in the bush not far from the district road that connects the village to the N2.

Mdantsane police spokesman Captain Nkosikho Mzuku yesterday said they had set up a rural safety and crime combat plan in the area that would focus on the farmers in and around Zozo location.

“Police, the local councillor and other stakeholders have organised a meeting to strategically address this problem with crime prevention patrols and crime pattern analysis,” said Mzuku.

The meeting is to be held this week.

Mzuku said three people arrested last week for stealing pigs in the area were due to appear in the East London Magistrate’s Court soon. They were not related to Haya’s case, he said.

Ward councillor Thobile Mtya said he would raise the stock theft problem at today’s Buffalo City Metro integrated development plan roadshow, to be held at the Kwelerha community hall.

“For people in these villages, stock theft is a sensitive matter. When you steal people’s livestock that is a very big crime,” said Mtya.

Local herdsman Steven Zondiwe last week told the Dispatch that the village was a stock theft hotspot because of its proximity to the N2.

Mzuku said it was the role of the local police station to prevent stock theft, stating that the police stock theft unit was responsible for the investigation of such cases. —