The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu in Maphisa
AT least 60 beasts that have been recovered in Matabeleland South province have no branding, making it difficult for authorities to identify their owners.
As a result, villagers and farmers have been encouraged to use visible branding on their livestock to ensure they are identified easily when they are stolen and recovered. This has seen many villagers failing to positively identify their cattle when they are called to where recoveries would have been made, a situation attributed to reluctance and laxity by the cattle owners.
This matter was highlighted in St Joseph’s area of Maphisa in Matabeleland South by the district chairperson for the Crime Consultative Committees at Maphisa police post, Mr Nelson Sibanda who was educating villagers on the importance of branding last week. “The importance of branding of cattle is seen when your beasts have been stolen. Suppose someone takes them to Plumtree, there will be a dip tank brand which identifies the district and the place where the beast will be coming from then it also has a brand owner.
branding livestock
When you apply for a brand automatically it gets computerised so when you go to the registry office, they trace the brand and it gives you the name and the number then it helps a lot to track down the owner,” said Mr Sibanda.
The Crime Consultative Chairman lamented that about 60 cattle were recently recovered without visible brands in the province.
“At the moment there are cattle which were taken from Shanyaugwe about 60 of them could not be identified because there were no brand marks. Six months down the line after a beast is stolen, it would have changed into something else and you cannot identify it. I have done some research around this place, villagers just do not brand their cows, they have the brand markers but they don’t put them. They just tell you that there were going to brand them at the time they were stolen. Sometimes their calves grow into mature beasts without branding then it becomes a problem when they want to sell them as they attempt to brand today and sell the next day,” he said.
Mr Sibanda said branding must be done expeditiously when one acquires a beast as there is no difference if a person steals a cow today, brands and sells it the following day. He said the clearing of cattle to move from one area to the other was impossible for cattle without brands.
“We cannot clear cattle that have no brand, it must come with a visible brand because it becomes hard to clear a cow that has no clear ownership. Sometimes people tell us that the record book of the cows is here in the village but it carries the name of a person in South Africa, so we have to phone the person in South Africa to confirm or for them to give a go ahead to sell the beasts and it’s a challenge,” he lamented.
Mr Sibanda said when people cross from Botswana with stolen cattle, they go through Maphisa and they also steal cows from the area and mix with many others that they steal along the way until they reach their destination.
cement
“Thieves end up with many beasts, the Botswana ones, those from Maphisa and three other districts in-between as they go to Gwanda. Cows are the same and when there is no brand mark it becomes a challenge. Stock theft is bad in this area, we have people who were stealing cows and selling to local butcheries, so it’s bad and the crimes are high hence we are trying to put up a base here at St Joseph’s. We received cement donations to finish up the building, roofing sheets are already there to complete the project,” he said.
He however, revealed that there are people who did not want that police base to be put up as they have a hand in stock theft.
“My aim is that by end of December this year we have to be opening it and have officers stationed here because for one to leave from St Joseph’s to Mambale or Maphisa or Kezi to report stock theft it is too far. We do have bases but they are far, one is forced to travel over 20 kilometres to reach a police post whereas if there is a police base here it can serve St Joseph’s, St Anna and surrounding areas,” he said.
Shanyaugwe in Gwanda is notorious for being a haven for stock thieves who steal cattle from as far as Mangwe in Plumtree and Botswana and keep them there. People who will have lost their cattle and visit their area are met with resistance and are often attacked when they go and search for their cattle.–@NyembeziMu
