Of 11 cattle heads and a speeding Honda Fit
Kgotla Gotcha of Lentsweletau village lost 11 cattle recently, and he suspects this to be the work of professional thieves who sell meat to butcheries. Gotcha’s 11 cattle were killed in three different places. Suspicions were raised when a blue Honda Fit was spotted invading the farms at a high speed only to disappear into thin air. “At first we missed four cattle then the next day one of the cattle came running to the kraal without its bell. We could not make anything out of this until a ‘blue Honda Fit’ sped away in the direction of Gaborone with the last four cattle of the 11 killed,” he explained. He says that someone saw this car carrying loads of meat and decided to follow the car tracks until it led them to all the three spots where the cattle were slaughtered. “This was within a short radius of our home and surprisingly we found paths that had been opened in the bushes, suggesting that the thieves had all the time to prepare for this heinous act. “We found all the heads and hooves of our cattle there,” said Gotcha. They observed that the culprits were using two cars as they found different car tracks at one of the crime scenes. One of the cars even had a puncture, he said. They also found the bell that belonged to the cow that had escaped. “We found four heads in the first spot, six in the other and the last one we found with three other live cattle tied to tree trunks,” he explained. Gotcha said this was well planned and that the culprits used sophisticated equipment considering the cleared roads and the kraal structures that were erected for this purpose. What shocks them is that there is a prominent farm around them which was suddenly closed, yet it has been open for sale all the time. “Everything here just doesn’t add up and it happened so fast,” he said adding that only private security personnel can get to the bottom of the matter. Lentsweletau Police Station Commander Assistant Superintendent Motshwari Mokamogo confirmed the incident and said that investigations are still ongoing. He said that they have not yet caught any suspect. He said theft of cattle was rife in the area.