Farmers finger cops, whites in stock theft
Syndicate led by whites, and police are doing nothing about it, black associations say
THE BLACK Farmers Association of SA (BFASA) and the African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA) have made claims that the SAPS did not believe that a white man could steal from a black man.
The two associations said, in response to questions from Independent Media’s investigations unit, that this was the wrong narrative, which had led to cases of stock theft not being thoroughly investigated and sometimes even abandoned.
Both organisations believed that black farmers in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Western Cape lost many of their animals to a syndicate led by white farmers, and the police were doing nothing about this.
The organisations had raised concerns in November last year during a meeting with Police Minister Bheki Cele where the “misconception” that only black people were behind the livestock theft was discussed.
Cele’s spokesperson Lirandzu Themba confirmed the meeting and said a number of resolutions were taken to curb stock theft, including the “building of a relationship between farmers to strengthen the farming industry”.
Dr Xolile Mtshagi, president of BFASA, said black farmers would graze animals on a vacant piece of land adjacent to an unfenced (white-owned) farm. White farmers would confiscate the cattle, especially those that were not marked.
Mtshagi said when white farmers
“Heavily-armed attackers come with trucks and use sophisticated tools to load the animals. Black people do not have the capacity to carry out such
an operation in less than 20 minutes.”
confiscated cattle or sheep belonging to their black counterparts, they immediately disposed of them. He said there were cases where white farmers would arbitrarily impose a huge fine.
“If you fail to pay R5 000 at a stipulated time, they then dispose of your cow. Then there are legal pounds that confiscate animals caught wandering onto a farm or on the road. None of those pound masters are black people. All those people are white, who have the authority to take away poor people’s stocks,” said Mtshagi.
Safety and Risk analyst at Free State Agriculture, Dr Jane Buys, said farmers were experiencing more theft of their livestock. She insisted that the police were involved although no one had been brought to justice. She said an officer was arrested last year for a stock theft committed in Hennenman, “and then apparently nothing happened”.
Nakana Masoka, a Free State-based farmer and AFASA’s general secretary, said in March last year heavily-armed men attacked him before they took away his 17 cattle. He said the incident took less than 20 minutes.
He believed that this was the work of a syndicate involving black and white people. He said attackers would come with trucks and use sophisticated tools to load the animals.
“Black people do not have the capacity to carry out such an operation in less than 20 minutes.
“What makes us believe that police are involved is because the investigation is continuously abandoned or cases are shoddily investigated so that they are thrown out of court,” said Masoka.
SA Institute of Race Relations (IRR) analyst Gabriel Crouse has warned about the serious lack of trust within society and racial groups in the country.
“The key task is analysing who benefits from turning frustration about maladministration into a racial contest of black versus white. IRR research indicates the answer does not lie in rural dwellers … but with those who bear the power to divide and rule according to a racial illogic as old as the Union of South Africa,” said Crouse.
The Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court had ruled in favour of white farmers for impounding overgrazing cattle, which belonged to black farmers.