The Sunday News
CATTLE have always been a benchmark of measuring a traditional family’s wealth and in the modern economy there are also a strategic resource bringing a lot of benefits to the economy and Zimbabwe is no exception.
Their importance in the traditional set up went beyond the provision of draught power, meat and milk as in some cases bulls played a religious role with some bestowed with ancestral names and thought to be custodians of families.
The loss of cattle to thieves now commonly known as cattle rustlers has always been a traumatising, painful and stressful experience as it leaves families and farmers poorer.
Over the years, cattle rustlers have caused havoc across the country especially in Matabeleland region where cattle ranching has remained the core farming business to most households.
Cattle rustlers have stolen many beasts and this has been pushed by the mushrooming of backyard abattoirs and butcheries whose owners are driven by selfish interests to line up their pockets at the expense of the hardworking farmers.
Such greediness has seen some of them not even bothering to check whether the cattle they are slaughtering have passed all the checks and balances prescribed by the law whenever there are sales.
This has left the police at the forefront of fighting the scourge not just with an aim to stem cattle rustling but ensure that proper procedures are followed in the movement of cattle and sales.
We thus commend efforts the police have made so far in trying to deal with this old-age vice which has seen many farmers losing their cattle to thieves.
Statistics availed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police Anti-Stock Theft Unit show that the police have been recording notable successes in dealing with the problem.
The statistics, availed to farmers during the 20th Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union annual general meeting held in Bulawayo last week by the unit’s co-ordinator Senior Assistant Commissioner Bernard Dumbura showed that cattle stolen across the country have gone down by 33 percent for the period between January and September compared to the same period last year.
The figures show that 5 405 cattle were stolen compared to 8 088 during the same nine-month period last year.
During the same period reported cases of cattle thefts went down from 3 534 in 2013 against 2 608 recorded during the same period this year translating to a 26 percent decline.
It is pleasing to note that this declining trend has been recorded over the years with the figures showing that in the past decade the number of cattle stolen went down from 27 000 in 2004 to 10 638 last year.
Although it is clear that Snr Asst Comm Dumbura and his team are doing a sterling job, we feel they should not lose sight of the fact that these figures are still too high hence the need for even tighter measures to ensure that we completely eradicate the problem of stock theft.
Police, in Snr Asst Comm Dumbura’s words, acknowledge that they cannot win this fight alone but need the help of every like-minded citizen to ensure that the country becomes free from cattle rustling.
“Despite the achievements, there is a need for the crime of stock theft to be reduced. It is against this background that the fight against stock theft calls for the heightening of participation by farmers and the generality of the community,” he said adding that: “In keeping with the principles of community policing, local law enforcement agents should develop working partnerships with the agriculture industry to increase awareness and reporting of suspicious activities.”
In most cases, local communities and farmers know or have an idea of who is stealing their beasts.
Armed with such information the farmers themselves become important pieces of the jigsaw puzzle to deal with cattle rustling.
Farmers must not keep such important information to themselves but report to the police to ensure that the culprits can be monitored and arrested. It’s pleasing that the law has been tightened for those who are convicted as they are supposed to serve a minimum of nine years behind bars.
It is important, therefore, that farmers and members of the community in general should be the eyes and ears of the police as the nation moves to deal with incidents of cattle rustling.
Abattoirs and butcheries must also operate within the confines of the law checking whether the cattle they are buying have been cleared by relevant authorities.
Hence once again we implore everyone to fight the scourge of stock theft so that we do not only celebrate the decline of cattle theft cases but the complete eradication of the problem.
