Yesterday the DA in Limpopo conducted an oversight at the Marble Hall Stock Theft Unit which highlighted the severe lack of resources.
The Marble Hall Unit is one of eight Stock Theft and Endangered Species Units in the province and serves 10 police stations, including Groblersdal, Motetema and Zaaiplaas.
There are 9 police officers allocated to the unit and the 2constable officers, who do not have laptops which affects the administration of the unit. Currently the unit only 4 vehicles at their disposal.
Although stock theft decreased by 7.1% provincially in the SAPS 2023/24 crime statistics there were exponential increases in stock theft in the area served by this unit:
- Marble Hall – 100% increase
- Groblersdal – 42.9%
- Motetema- 35.7%
- Zaaiplaas- 400%
The exponential increase in stock theft is indicative of a lack of resources, specifically vehicles compound the challenges around effective policing.
According to the National Livestock Theft Prevention Forum, cases not being reported to police were increasing and resulted in a skewed picture of the rate of livestock theft in the country.
Livestock is the economic backbone in rural areas and stock theft directly affects future economic and agricultural activities, threatening food security.
The predisposed hardships that come with being a farmer cannot be aggravated by living in fear that your livelihood will be stolen. The DA will continue to hold the SAPS accountable to their mandate of effective policing in our rural areas.