Livestock producers lose millions of rands to stock theft annually

By Annelie Coleman | 19 November 2024 | 5:00 am

The economic losses caused by livestock theft in the red meat industry amounts to millions of rands annually and is increasingly driven by well-organised criminal syndicates, according to Joe Scholtz, vice-chairman of the National Stock Theft Prevention Forum.

“The crime is especially rife in provinces such as the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North West and along the border between the Free State and Lesotho. The Eastern Cape is particularly hard hit, with seven out of the 10 stock theft hotspots in the country being in the province. The crime is particularly rife in the areas previously known as Transkei and Ciskei.

“I am also concerned about the effect of the crime on small and subsistence farmers who farm close to town. These farmers, especially goat and sheep producers, endure tremendous losses to so called pot-slaughterers,” Scholtz told Farmer’s Weekly.

The forum said in a statement that livestock theft had in many cases changed from ordinary pot-slaughter to crimes committed by highly organised syndicates and called on the South African Police Service (SAPS) to again declare livestock theft as a priority crime and place it in the same category as the theft of copper, fuel and other metals.

The economic loss of livestock theft to the South African economy is astronomical. According to Scholtz, it does not only erode on-farms sustainability and profitability but “has in some areas reached such high levels that many producers were forced off their land”.

The forum also expressed serious concern about the increase of perpetrators hunting livestock with dogs. An appeal was made to producers to report this trend not only to the SAPS Stock Theft Units, but also to the SPCA as this practice was mostly accompanied by brutality and animal abuse.

The additional charge of animal cruelty in a livestock theft case could contribute to an aggravated sentence, should the perpetrators be found guilty.