Stock theft robs agriculture of at least R200 million in just one quarter – AfriForum
According to AfriForum, stock theft robbed the South African agricultural industry of at least R200 million in direct losses from January to March this year. Despite the fact that the South African Police Service (SAPS) reported 5 671 cases of stock theft nationwide in the fourth quarter of 2024/2025, a decrease of 8.9% from the same quarter in 2023/2024, AfriForum maintains that there is no cause for celebration.
The civil rights organisation emphasises that the total financial loss due to stock theft is significantly more than the conservatively estimated R200 million. The indirect financial loss from stock theft includes, among other things, the loss in breeding potential, the cost of implementing safety mechanisms and increased insurance premiums and will need to be added to determine the true financial loss from this crime.
According to Hennie Bekker, AfriForum’s District Coordinator for the Highveld in Mpumalanga and compiler of a new AfriForum course on combating stock theft, the Eastern Cape is the province worst affected by stock theft. In this province, 1 628 stock theft counts were reported in the fourth quarter of 2024/2025. In the same period, 569 counts of stock theft were reported in Mpumalanga, while six police stations in this province also rank among the 30 stations with the highest counts of stock theft. Three of these stations also recorded an increase in the number of stock thefts compared to the same quarter in 2023/2024.
“In the past quarter alone, a total of just over 19 000 sheep, nearly 12 000 cattle and 12 000 goats were stolen nationwide, and in the past year there were more than 25 600 counts of stock theft. However, these figures do not outline the full extent of the problem of stock theft. Farmers spend millions of rands on guards and technology to protect their livestock. This, together with the economic pressure on the meat market, ultimately brings farmers to the point where profitable farming becomes almost unattainable,” explains Bekker.
He further emphasises that the misclassification of stock theft, as well as cases of police reluctance to register incidents of stock theft reported by the public, create further problems.
“Cases where farmers who want to report stock theft are turned away at the police complaints offices are extremely worrying. In one recent case reported to AfriForum, an AfriForum member and farmer was turned away at three police stations after he unsuccessfully tried to report the theft of livestock worth more than R100 000,” says Bekker.
Bekker also argues that the SAPS stock theft units face several critical challenges. The units are largely understaffed and experience challenges with a fleet of old or unreliable vehicles with which they must travel long distances – often over rough terrain. The units also have to serve enormous regions, with some units even serving more than 11 police stations. “To make matters worse, livestock theft syndicates are becoming more sophisticated by the day and know exactly how to use the challenges in rural security to their advantage. Stolen livestock are often transported across provincial borders, which makes tracking them more challenging. These livestock are then sold at auctions or to speculators more than 200 km away from the crime scene. Furthermore, the SAPS members in other units are not necessarily sufficiently trained to investigate or combat livestock theft,” says Bekker.
Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s Chief Spokesperson for Community Safety, emphasises that the community’s cooperation in combating stock theft is essential. “It is of crucial importance for farmers to join their local rural safety structures, such as AfriForum’s farm watch, to tackle this issue and to immediately report cases to AfriForum when the SAPS refuses to register cases of stock theft,” he concludes.
New course: AfriForum ready to catch livestock thieves
AfriForum’s more than 170 neighbourhood and farm watches nationwide are aware of the many challenges that the livestock theft units face. The civil rights organisation therefore recently compiled a training programme to effectively train the organisation’s neighbourhood and farm watch members in combating livestock theft, a national multi-million-rand crime problem.
The next online training opportunity in combating livestock theft will take place later this month on 18 June. The training is offered free of charge to all interested AfriForum members and focuses on all the necessary legal aspects to ensure the effective combating of livestock theft. Additional training opportunities, such as AfriForum’s new tracking course, are also aimed at curbing the pressing livestock theft problem that plagues rural communities.
Join AfriForum today to make use of these training opportunities. Visit www.wordlid.co.za for more information.
