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- Theft of shares should be considered an economic crime, says Police Minister Bheki Cele.
- A task force is investigating stock theft problems in the eastern Free State and has discovered the existence of five groups involved in the theft of shares, according to Cele.
- Cele met with law enforcement officials, farmers and farm workers in the province on Thursday.
The harshly speaking Police Minister Bheki Cele says that five groups involved in stock theft have been discovered in the eastern Free State, specifically in Senekal, Paul Roux and Bethlehem, where the manager of the 21-year-old farmhouse Brendin Horner was killed last month.
Cele was in the eastern part of the province on Thursday, where he met with law enforcement officers, farmers and farm workers.
A task force, made up of Hawks officials, criminal intelligence, state security officials and the Independent Police Investigations Directorate (IPID), discovered the existence of the five groups, he told them.
He added that the task force’s investigation included:
- an analysis of the cases of share theft registered since 2012;
- files that were opened but never led to the processing stage; Y
- an analysis of arrests for cattle theft and murders on farms.
He said there was a clear increase in the detention of foreign nationals for crimes. Foreigners from Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique were implicated, he added, and said he was in contact with International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor about this.
Farmers in the Free State listen to the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, during the rural security imbizo held at the Bethlehem City Hall. (Kayleen Morgan, News24)
The minister also said he took a look at the stock theft figures that are part of the quarterly crime statistics to be released on Friday.
“I saw the stock theft figures. It’s hell.”
“This is economic sabotage. It cannot be considered a common crime, it is not a minor crime,” he added.
However, he warned farmers and farm workers, both black and white, to “stop fighting each other” because they had a common enemy: criminality.
Acknowledging the problems that the farming community collectively faces, Cele asked that farmers not play the game of those who spread disinformation, such as talking about white genocide.
Farmers from the Free State listen to Police Minister Bheki Cele during the rural security imbizo held at the Bethlehem City Hall. (Kayleen Morgan, News24)
The minister previously met with farmers who turned over a file containing allegations that stock theft syndicates were operating in the area and that the police were involved. He promised to return and that a plan would be drawn up.
He returned on Thursday and, in the community room in Belén, the interventions were discussed.
The response to the rural security imbizo was generally positive and several farmers noted that they had already seen an improvement.
However, the farming community still wants to see arrests and convictions.
