Police in Mpumalanga are requesting the community to assist in the fight against theft of livestock after a few reported incidents in the Gert Sibande Region. Amongst the incidents is a case in which on Friday, 19 May 2017, members of the South African Police Service at Lothair received a tip-off from a member of the community about suspected stolen sheep at a plantation in Lothair, near Ermelo. The sheep had been stolen from a local farm.
The police found 37 sheep at the forest out of a total of 40 that were missing from the farmer’s kraal, two of them had been slaughtered, one had died presumably from suffocation, thirty four were hidden with tree branches and all of them were still alive while three are still unaccounted for.
Meanwhile on Monday, 22 May 2017, at neighbouring Ermelo, another farmer discovered that 16 sheep were missing from his flock, while counting them. The farmer and his workers then went into the veld looking for the missing sheep whereupon they came across a skin and heads of 15 sheep, which suggest that they have been slaughtered. The sixteenth one was missing and it is believed that it may have been taken alive.
No arrests have been made in either of the incidents and the Ermelo Stock Theft Unit is investigating. An earnest appeal is made to anyone who may assist police in their investigations, for the first incident Warrant Officer Mandla Mkhwanazi can be contacted at 072 984 1120 or 071845 3020 and Warrant Officer Makhosini Malinga can be contacted at 082 503 8666 for the second stock theft incident. Alternatively members of the community can tip the police anonymously by dialling SAPS Crime Stop at 08600 10111.
South Africa Today – South Africa News
