On a North West farm between Potchefstroom and Vanderbijlpark, livestock farmer Buti Malinga is under a lot of pressure to keep his small-scale farm from going under.
Malinga runs Vukani Piggery, 154 hectares in size, alongside his sister Cathy. The farm is in financial distress. In less than two weeks they have fallen victim to the villainous acts of unscrupulous criminals.
On 22 December 2022, thieves forcefully gained access to the duo’s farm and piggery house stealing 24 grower pigs. It happened again on 3 January 2023. This time, they helped themselves to 48 of their grower pigs.
According to Malinga, the two incidents alone have cost Vukani Piggery more than R200 000. “I’ll tell you what, it’s a devastating start to the year. It’s a lot of money. This is a very serious setback.”
Malinga says the money could have been spent elsewhere.
“We’ve got feed prices, medication, overheads, electricity, maintenance, SARS needs to be paid, and these things need to be taken care of.”
‘It’s when you let your guard down’
Malinga says stock thieves invade his farm when he lets his guard down. On the morning of 22 December, between 01:00 and 04:00 am, an unknown number of thieves gained access to Vukani Piggery. They did this by cutting the fence surrounding the piggery house and breaking the outside lock.
He would lock the piggery house from both the inside and outside. “This didn’t stop them though. They eventually gained access to the house by cutting through the wired part of the house.”
Malinga suspects that the criminals followed the same modus operandi with the most recent break-in.
“I already had a market in place for the pigs. I’m not sure how I am going to get through this.”
Malinga sells his pigs at a live weight of between 90kg and 100kg at the current market price of R39 per kg for baconers, and R40 per kg for porkers and cutters.
Devastating loss
“What I sell, caters for what is coming,” he explains. “This cycle should cater for the next cycle that is coming. How am I going to cater for the cycle that is coming with a loss of over R200 000?”
Malinga fears they will not be able to meet the demand in the next cycle. Unfortunately, this makes Vukani Piggery unreliable in the marketplace.
The pigs stolen from Malinga’s farm were supposed to be sold in the second week of February. Instead of selling around 60 of his pigs, Malinga could now only sell 20. This is not nearly enough to make up for the loss suffered.
Open dockets and missing livestock
According to North West premier, Kaobitsa Maape, the province is experiencing a wave of stock theft, negatively impacting small-scale livestock stock farmers in rural communities.
“Agriculture is one of the cornerstones of the economy in the province and provides for the food security of individual households and addresses poverty alleviation through small-scale communal farming,” he said.
In Mzansi, there are more than 131 000 cases of stolen stock each year. A significant amount of stock thefts are not reported because farmers feel that nothing will be done.
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Data from Statistics South Africa indicate the non-reporting of stock theft comes down to about 70.7% cases.
For the Malinga, it’s another day in the “office”. He’s reported at least eight cases of livestock theft at his local police station. The cases date back to 2015 and none of them have been resolved.
“After a few months, police will tell you that there is no reason for them to keep this case open because of a lack of information. It ends there.”
Thieves strike twice a year
In 2022, Malinga thought they were spared from another break-in, as they normally occur between October and November, he tells Food For Mzansi. This was, however, not the case.
“In the past two years [the criminals] have come twice a year. [Before that] they just came once. It’s more frequent now.”
On two separate occasions, 40 grower pigs were stolen from Vukani Piggery in October 2021. In 2020, 25 sheep were stolen from the property.
Although the sheep were later recovered, a second attack, less than a month apart, saw Malinga losing all his sheep.
“These people are not stealing from us because they are hungry. How do you take 72 pigs when you are hungry?”
Malinga says occasionally, thieves also help themselves to some of their office equipment. Or anything else they can load onto their getaway vehicles.
“Like a fridge stocked with animal medication,” Malinga says. “A small vaccine bottle costs close to R2 000.”
‘Should I sleep with my animals?’
Livestock crime, he admits, is rife in his stretch of the world. The level of stock theft in the area, he believes, has increased over the years.
Malinga’s neighbours, mostly commercial farmers, have not been spared.
“But at least commercial people have the muscle to take it. If you are small, like me, it’s difficult,” he remarks.
“Our vulnerability is caused by the fact that we are not commercial yet and we are not able to incur other expenses to cover all the security measures that our farm requires.”
At the time of this interview, another farm had been targeted in his area. Over 30 sheep were stolen.
“It’s like we need to now sleep with our animals. Where is this going?” Malinga wants to know.
“We are farming for [thieves] we work hard and then they decide whenever they want to come and take your things for free.
“These people are not stealing from us because they are hungry. How do you take 72 pigs when you are hungry? Where are you storing them? It’s a syndicate. Where do we go for help?”
Hopes for justice
Malinga says for now, he is trying to find a way to salvage the situation while police attempt to investigate his latest stock theft case.
“I keep myself motivated, they can’t keep me down…We are just hoping that we catch the perpetrators.”
Malinga calls on the police to play their part.
“Those pigs are dead, there is no way that I can get them again. [But] we need a strategy, we know where the hotspots are. We need more boots and police visibility. We need people that can enforce what needs to be enforced,” Malinga says.
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