This is according to Aggrey Mahanjana, group managing director of the National Emergent Red Meat Producers' Organisation, also known as Nerpo. Mahanjana spoke to OFM News’ Elsabé Richard about stock theft and the implications thereof…

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Mahanjana says immediately after the first hard lockdown was enforced by government in March last year to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, farmers throughout the country have recorded a huge escalation of stock theft. Farmers in the Free State, North West and Eastern Cape, in particular, was plagued by this crime.

He says this drew the attention of everyone in the sector, including politicians. Mahanjana also highlighted that stock theft has not shown any sign of stopping.

He says smallholder farmers experience huge economic and socio-economic implications due to this crime.

Mahanjana explains that they’ve observed in rural areas such as Transkei and Ciskei, thieves were cleaning the kraals. He adds that especially women whose husbands are employed in cities are depending on income derived from their livestock farming and are dependent on it to pay their children’s school fees and to feed them.

With that being said, Mahanjana shares that there seem to be numerous sectors that fuel stock theft. “When we look at the timing, I think the issue is that a lot of people have lost their jobs [during] the Covid-19 [pandemic], especially in the cities.

“These thieves are using young people to go and steal – they don’t go and steal themselves… They are organisers of buyers. Buyers are from far areas. They will take animals from Transkei to Durban. They will take animals from Ciskei to Cape Town. So, what was very clear is that there’s a big market somewhere which was really active and these markets are more in urban areas,” says Mahanjana.

He further adds that the pandemic had a negative impact on people’s wallets, and therefore opt to buy stolen meat at a cheap price only to resell it to the public for even cheaper.

Mahanjana urge farmers to be vigilant and monitor unknown cars and people roaming around on their premises and in their area and report them to the police or local organised agriculture structures. Also, he asks that farmers mark their animals in order to make them easily identifiable for when thieves are apprehended “there must be no argument about whose animals this is.”

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