Farmers protest at police station

ANGRY farmers gathered at Rocklands police station yesterday to demand improved law enforcement, and some of them threatened to take the law into their own hands.

“We demand policing” read a banner the group of about 20 farmers and farmworkers fastened to a fence at the police station.

They said they were concerned about an increase in crime in the Rocklands, Witteklip, Elands River, Greenbushes and surrounding areas, claiming little was being done about it by police servicing the zones.

The Herald reported yesterday that more than 155 sheep, 50 pigs and several head of cattle, to the value of more than R300 000, had been stolen in the past six weeks.

The Rocklands police station was said to be without vehicles and at times completely unmanned.

“If I catch thieves on my farm, I am going to hang them. Maybe even here in front of the police station. Maybe then we will get some reaction from them,” one farmer said while pointing to trees across the road from the station.”

Rocklands farmer Willem Marais said he had lost more than 30 goats and sheep since January, setting him back about R30 000.

“Everywhere on my farm, I come across holes cut in my fences. Even the electrified fences are cut. Nothing can keep these guys out.

“But when you phone the police, and on the off-chance that someone does show up, they walk around the farm for a few minutes, look around a bit, and leave. Nothing comes of the cases we report.”

He said in April he and his workers came across stock thieves on the farm and pursued them after contacting the police. The thieves managed to escape.

Marais said police had not arrived at his farm after his call.

Provincial police spokeswoman Brigadier Marinda Mills said there would be an investigation into the allocation of resources to Rocklands police station.