Eastern Cape Premier Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane said the rampant stock theft in the province was costing emerging rural farmers millions and the government has launched a technology-based system that will assist to curb this crime.
Mabuyane was speaking during the launch of the Livestock Identification and Traceability System (LITS) in Tsolo where he attended together with his Rural Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) MEC Nonkqubela Pieters, Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Xolile Nqatha.
LITS is a technology-based ear-tag gadget which government is delivering to 120 cattle farming enterprises and will benefit 30 000 cattle across the province.
Mabuyane said more than 18 000 animals worth more than R58 million have been stolen in the province recently.
“You can imagine what that is doing to the economy. When you talk about the province being the home of livestock, you are talking about these subsistence rural farmers. We have a problem of livestock theft and it has been with us for some time now. We are trying to tackle that,” Mabuyane said.
Mabuyane said the electronic ear-tag device would also to ensure that animals were not only branded but their origins would be traced.
“We are trying to introduce more organized and commercial way of handling these animals. This is part of us trying to fight and curb livestock theft. We are sending a message to all the thieves out there that we’ll be after you in a better and organized manner. You can’t sleep today and wake up with a kraal full of cows that you can’t account for,” adding that the system will be rolled out across the province.
He said government wants to see all animal population being branded properly and given the ear-tag to make sure they were monitored better.
Pieters said LITS will assist farmers in the Tsolo area, which is one of the municipalities with high rate of stock theft, it is going to assist the police because they will know who is the rightful owner of the cow and the owner will know this is their cow.
“Even if you sell the animal to somebody else, you will be able to trace the origin.
If there are diseases you are able to trace the origin of the cow. Farmers are going to be trained to keep records of their cattle to make sure that if it was sick, when was it sick, what type of medication has been used, how many times have you dipped your herd of cattle,” said Pieters.
She said the system helps to trace the owner of the livestock if you find it in the abattoir, if it is a stolen cow, you are able to trace it back to the owner.
Nqatha said the launch adds in the instruments needed in the fight against crime and government will ensure that all those who are responsible are held accountable.
“Already we have been able to recover the stolen livestock, we have already been able to effect arrests. One of the things we were able to do was to do an assessment of our stock theft unit and its location between Qumbu and Sulenkama so that the capacity of the police is located nearer to the hotspot to facilitate our responsiveness,” said Nqatha.
He said the community should work with the police to fight against stock theft, adding that animal branding and ear-tagging will assist in this collaboration.
One of the farmers whose animals were ear-tagged and branded, Mr Sabatha Mnjunju said he hoped the system would be able to track their livestock and they would be easily identified when they are seen in other areas or when stolen.
“It will help us but chances of it helping are small because ear-tags can be removed.
Thieves know how to remove them. But where I think it can help is if you lose animals today when they had not succeeded in removing the tags and you report it on time, it can help trace the animals that way,” said Yelo.
Another farmer, Mr Mzimeli Yelo who, even though he was a bit skeptical about the LITS, welcomed the system.
He said: “They say it will help but these ear-tags can be removed easily. If it were to help trace my animals if they were to be stolen, I would be happy. I would clap hands for government for helping us”
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All ear-tagged animals and identities of their owners are registered into a central database where animal movement is recorded to make it easy to trace the animal back to the owner.
Once the system is fully implemented, each animal slaughtered in any abattoir can be traced from where it was farmed, farming conditions where the animal was farmed, and all animal health practices the animal was exposed to. This will also make it possible to identify owners of registered animals, thus improving recovery of stolen animals.
DRDAR is implementing this national policy through collaboration with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC). Currently the Department has trained and registered more that 250 veterinarians, scientists, animal health technicians and extension advisors to lead the implementation of the System.
LITS rollout is the implementation of the Animal Identification Act No 6 of 2002, which serves as a national regulatory mandate that provides for an Animal Identification System as a first line of defense against stock theft, enhances identification of property and supports tracing of animals.
The Act calls for the Animal Identification System (AIS), which is the computerized National Register of Animal Identification marks of South Africa and is managed by the Department of Agriculture (DOA). The livestock owners must have a registered identification mark for their animals. The permanent marking of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs is compulsory in South Africa, according to the Act.
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