22 April 2024
By: Lloyd Phillips
Sixteen specially trained private investigators have been deployed in the Free State to crack down on livestock theft. This brings the number of private investigators in the province to 21.
Willie Clack, a respected livestock theft expert, welcomed the news that farmers working with Free State Agriculture (FSA) have employed and trained additional investigators to assist with the detection of stolen livestock and livestock thieves.
FSA says its initiative began on 1 July last year “because the level of livestock theft in the Free State had reached unacceptable levels”.
Peet Swanepoel, coordinator of FSA’s initiative for private livestock theft investigators, says: “Lack of manpower, vehicles and equipment in the South African Police Service livestock theft units is a major concern, and it was clear that a community initiative was needed to help turn things around.”
According to Isabel Kruger, FSA’s livestock theft security representative, Swanepoel was previously a colonel at the SAPS national headquarters for livestock theft units. He has extensive experience and knowledge of this type of crime.
Kruger says local farmers’ associations who want their own private investigator are responsible for identifying, recruiting and paying the person they consider most suitable for the position. Preferred candidates are former or current police officers, soldiers, or private security officers with experience in combating crime, especially in rural areas.
“These candidates must be registered with PSiRA (the regulatory authority in the private security industry) and then undergo specialised training to investigate livestock thefts. This registration is to ensure that private livestock theft investigators work in accordance with all relevant South African laws,” says Kruger.
According to her, their main task is to assist the police in investigations into livestock theft cases, to track down suspects and make arrests, and to provide prosecutors and the courts with detailed and admissible information, which hopefully will ensure that those who commit livestock thefts are found guilty.
Clack is a senior lecturer at Unisa’s college of criminal justice and a farmer from North West. He was previously the head of the National Livestock Theft Prevention Forum and has a wealth of research experience on this type of crime, which costs the country an estimated R1,5 billion annually.”
According to Clack, this initiative by FSA and its members is commendable. “Livestock theft units are constantly declining in terms of manpower, resources and even their attitude,” he says. “The initiative for private livestock theft investigators is one of those good examples of communities creating their own legitimate security structures. It is very important that such structures are legal.”
However, Clack adds that a downside of communities taking responsibility for their own safety and security is that it can inadvertently contribute to skewing the police’s crime statistics at local levels. If a police station’s statistics show that fewer crimes are reported because the local community either does not trust the police or because it handles crimes itself, it can lead to even fewer resources being allocated to these police stations in the future.
FSA says its initiative, which operates in collaboration with the police’s rural security coordinators and livestock theft units, has already achieved significant successes in parts of the Free State experiencing high levels of livestock theft. These successes are motivating more local farmers’ associations to consider hiring their own private livestock theft investigator.
