Farmers employ livestock thieves disguised as herd boys
Some farmers think that just because the Botswana Police operatives are busy traversing the country and arresting livestock thieves, they can now relax and not bother make their own efforts of preventing their livestock from being stolen. This is how most farmers get impoverished.
The Botswana Police anti-stock theft operation dubbed 'Kgomokhumo,' which was established some five years ago with the sole intention of curbing stock theft in the country, has assisted greatly in deterring stock theft, or at least reducing the numbers of stolen animals significantly.
The police have been busting thieves in all corners of Botswana, some of them found with carcasses they could not account for. Thousands have been arrested and taken before courts. What the police realise is that the thieves steal livestock, kill the animals and sell to butcheries, restaurants and even street vendors.
The carcasses are mostly sold at very low prices without a care in the world of the expenses that farmers spent breeding the livestock. But since the Kgomokhumo operation, stock theft has somewhat reduced.
However, thieves are now getting smarter. Once they realise the police are patrolling their hunting grouns, they move to other areas or they patiently wait for the police operation to end then go back to stealing the livestock.
“Farmers should be reminded that Kgomokhumo is not their herd boy. They are now leaving their livestock unattended. They do not take it to kraals at night, they do not hire herd boys who will look after livestock during the day, they allow livestock to go out and graze unattended,” Seth Morule, Chairperson of No 14 District Crime Prevention Executive Committee said.
Morule is worried that farmers now want to dump all responsibility of their livestock on the police.
“You will hear them saying when the operation was on, our livestock was protected now they are gone and thieves have started again. The police are not herd boys," he advised, adding that some farmers rarely do checks to ensure that those they hire to care for their livestock are genuine. What they do not know is that they hire thieves disguised as farm workers.
“They come into your farms looking for jobs and farmers do not do any background checks. After a few days they claim to have emergencies back at home, at this point, know that your livestock is in trouble, they take all and go sell it, when they return, they cry with you and claim to be helping you look for your livestock,” he said.
Elizabeth Ferreira, the Director of Botswana Farmers Association confirmed that indeed some farmers hire thieves thinking they are getting farm workers.
“We went around and have seen that there is need for us to improve how we do things. And honestly we do notice behaviour change with some farmers checking all background information of all those they hire," she said.