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The recently released 2024/25 Stats SA Governance, Public Safety, and Justice Survey (GPSJS) once again echoed the disastrous effect of livestock theft on the livestock sector. According to Agbiz chief economist Wandile Sihlobo, an increasing and worrying trend is the theft of other agricultural products, such as crops and fruit.
The report states that in 2024/25, more than 61 352 goats, 37 947 cattle, 36 486 poultry and 27 852 sheep were stolen. Goats top the list as most stolen livestock at 39,8% of all livestock theft, with cattle in second place on 24,6%.
Location, location, location
Also significant, says Sihlobo, is the location of the theft. The survey highlights that almost half of theft incidents occurred in a kraal or outside the house, while 40,7% of the incidents took place in fields or grazing land.
“If we want to continue having a prosperous agricultural sector,” he points out, “we must put strong control on these issues. This could be through enhanced collaboration between the police services and organised agriculture groups.”
Hampering growth
The theft incidences, he points out, present enormous costs to farmers and agribusinesses. “In fact, if one talks to any commercial farmer, one will learn that over time there has been significant spending on security. I have seen several farmers installing cameras and several security measures due to concerns about crime.”
New entrant farmers, who may have relatively weak financial muscle, may be taken out of business due to stock theft. The same is true for smallholder farmers who are also victims of such crimes, leaving households in a worse-off position.
Crime and theft, he points out, are not unique to South Africa. “We have seen cases of avocado theft in Mexico and other regions of the world. In New Zealand, they also struggle with similar issues such as avocado theft. The response in these countries has generally been enhanced collaboration between farmers and police services. It is such a response that we must also see in South Africa, at a much-improved level than what we are currently seeing.”
Agriculture central to growth
South Africa continues to view agriculture as one of the key sectors to our long-term growth agenda. “To achieve the long-term growth objectives, we not only need the release of over two million hectares of government land to farmers with title deeds, but also an increase in investment. The investment will increase if there is comfort about the security in our sector. Thus, issues of crime must also be prioritised and addressed swiftly.”
The same goes for young people wanting to join the sector. “For young and new entrant farmers to thrive and have confidence in the sector, there must be a security improvement. Therefore, fighting crime should remain a top priority in collaboration with organised agriculture.”
Again, we are only talking about livestock here, but we know of incidents of crop and fruit theft in some regions of the country, which also requires serious attention.
Grain theft burden
According to Dr Charl van der Merwe, general manager of Agbiz Grain, problems such as grain theft fraud are becoming a serious concern for the grain industry. Stock theft, he points out, may be better documented, but this does not take away from the fact that grain theft has a hugely detrimental and growing impact on the industry.
He explains that there are mainly three areas where theft takes place: on the grain fields, on the road during transport, and during storage.
“It is quite clear that grain theft and fraud are increasingly perpetrated by highly sophisticated organised crime syndicates that target the entire value chain. Thieves may even steal grain in one place and brazenly put it back in the value chain in a totally different place to make detection more difficult.”
Fruit industry’s struggles
The fruit industry is also not exempt of theft. In their case, says Elise-Marie Steenkamp, group communications manager at Hortgro, criminals often target expensive infrastructure such as water pumps, solar panels and electric cables, apart from the fruit itself. Producers are being forced to spend millions on security measures to try and keep criminals at bay.
“In parts of the country, orchards must be protected with shade netting, which implies a huge number of wooden poles in the orchard to keep the netting up. These poles are a very attractive target for thieves and producers must go to great lengths to mark the poles so that they can be identified as their property.”
What makes it even more difficult, she says, is that fruit thieves come in categories – from loners stealing a bagful each, to gangs arriving in numbers with pick-ups to pillage orchards, damaging trees and disappearing with tonnes of the best fruit.
Dreaded drones
Drone technology is increasingly being used to monitor orchards at night through infrared technology.
“What especially galls producers is that in many cases, this stolen fruit is then sold alongside the road to motorists. This is a seriously dangerous situation, firstly because a stationary vehicle next to the road is an easy target for robbers, but secondly because there is no guarantee that those fruits weren’t sprayed with chemicals of which the withholding period is still applicable. This could cause serious illness.”
Agriculture is an essential sector of our economy, Sihlobo concludes, with great potential for job creation and improving economic conditions in rural South Africa; therefore, ensuring that farmers are operating in a safe and sound environment is key. – Izak Hofmeyr, Plaas Media
