A desperate search of farmers looking for their cattle yielded an alarming bust of what is described as a cattle theft syndicate on December 8.
Close to 60 cattle were discovered to be kept in a kraal in an open veld on the outskirts behind Kliprivier Drive, opposite Kromvlei Cemetery, reportedly stolen from their owners.
Upon discovery, a few local farmers stormed in alongside law enforcement to confiscate their stolen cattle in what is suspected to have been a cattle theft syndicate which has been running for a while now.
During the search, some of the farmers managed to get all their cattle back with some found in the veld while the search ensued.
Upon their arrival, they found the Bonsmara, Charolais, and Brahman cattle. One of these meat cattle is estimated to cost about R17 000. This kraal’s structure was seen to have municipal cemented poles which were also stolen from alongside roads.
Thousands of rands lost
Sergeant Tintswalo Ndhambi of Kliprivier SAPS confirmed that two men were arrested in connection and that the docket was allocated to SAPS’ Stock Theft Unit.
Kliprivier farmer Conrad Fick whose cattle were stolen in the early hours of December 7, said after they discovered their cattle to be stolen, they tracked them until they found them in the veld.
Some of the cattle were found at a slaughterhouse later in the afternoon.
Should the cattle have not been found and recovered, Fick’s losses could easily amount to about R450 000.
“Mine is the Boran breed, my 19 cows are worth a lot. We found six calves and two in the veld on the way. They remove the tags off the cows and put new tags with brand new irons that they brand over the existing names of the cows,” he explained.
Fick said the suspects had everything they needed to ‘run this cattle syndicate’.
Okker Visagie told the Alberton Record that some of his cattle are still at the slaughterhouse and that SAPS told him that he has to prove the cattle are his through DNA.
“We had SAPS’ K9 Unit join us, we’re also getting every other stakeholder involved. All stolen cattle that they reckon now come from Balfour, Heidelberg and they get moved and sold here,” he said.
Karen Mountjoy, who farms across the road from the said kraal, said she first visited the site in September after losing her cattle.
“There were cyclists that stopped on the farm and told me there were some cattle and told me to come to look. I came here in September and found five guys here, I asked the older guy, ‘why have a kraal in the middle of nowhere?’ He assaulted me. I climbed through the fence to see the cattle up close.
“The guy that supposedly was the owner said I broke his fence and laid a charge against me,” she explained.
She also realised her cattle were kept there because she found some of her ear tags belonging to her cattle.
“We managed to get my cattle as well as my neighbour’s cows, but not a lot of them. It was three of my cattle that we could identify and two of my next-door neighbours. The previous time that I was here, there were far more Nguni cattle, I now don’t see a single one. They keep rotating the cattle. As they steal they sell them off,” said Mountjoy.
Mountjoy reiterated that they found that the cattle are not looked after as there is no water for them, and the calves are kept separately from their mothers.
