This comes after police minister Bheki Cele, national police commissioner Khehla Sitole and his team, presented the country's crime statistics to Parliament's Police Portfolio Committee on Thursday. During the briefing, the head of police crime research and statistics, Norman Sekhukhune, revealed stock theft increased by 2,9% over the course of 2018/19. It is the biggest increase in the property-related crime category, a category that saw a 2,5% decline overall, making stock theft the rotten apple in the bunch. Sekhukhune says the increase in stock theft needs to be addressed urgently.

“Stock theft has been increasing across all nine provinces,” says Sekhukhune. He adds that the value of the animals stolen is millions. He is deeply concerned about the victims of the theft who rely on the animals to pay for educating their children and feeding their families.

While committee members asked the Police Minister Bheki Cele to elaborate on crimes as a result of police action, no questions were raised pertaining to the rise in stock theft and the possible involvement of police officials thereof.

In April 2019, Bloemfontein police nabbed five people, including a police detective, in a stock-theft drama that escalated into an N1 shoot-out in the early hours of 8 April. Police spokesperson in the Free State capital, Thabo Covane, told OFM News police received a tip-off regarding an alleged plot to steal livestock from a farm in Petrusburg on Sunday 7 April. At around 04:20 the next day, authorities received a call to head to the N8 as the suspects had just stolen the stock and were making their way back to Bloemfontein in a Ford Ikon.

Covane reveals things came to a head when police spotted the Ikon, which is a state vehicle, belonging to the Free State Department of Police, Roads, and Transport. In a dramatic twist of events, a police chase ensued as the Ikon sped off heading down the off-ramp joining the N1 North from the N8, proceeding to drive in the direction of oncoming traffic. The driver is believed to have shortly thereafter lost control and ended up in the bushes between the lanes on the N1. It is then that a shoot-out between the driver of the vehicle and police began. Covane says “the police managed to arrest three men, between the ages of 35 and 40, with the driver fleeing the scene”.

Seven pigs were recovered in the boot of the state-owned sedan. Following some interrogation, the apprehended suspects led police to their alleged crime partners in a Silver VW Polo stranded on the N8, due to an empty fuel tank. There were two more suspects inside the car, also between the above-mentioned age range. One of these two men is a detective in Bloemfontein. The Polo suspects did not have pigs with them as they had been alerted to free the stolen stock.

OFM News