First, eight of his calves were stolen, and now 33 cows and 11 calves have been poisoned. “I can’t explain how it feels. It’s not a pretty sight,” says Ockert Goosen.
“It’s more than R900 000 in immediate damage. This is without considering that most of the cows were pregnant, and there’s the future loss of income.”
Goosen (25) started farming with Bonsmaras and Bonsmara crosses near Tosca two-and-a-half years ago. He also rents cattle land near Bray in the Kgalagadi district in North West.
Shocking videos have been circulating on WhatsApp groups and social media showing bloated cows and calves lying around after being poisoned near Bray.
The videos were made by Wesley Sevenster, one of Goosen’s friends who also farms in the area.
In the video, Sevenster says the identity of the poisoner is known but the police were doing nothing to arrest the man – allegedly the head of a cattle theft syndicate who has caused problems for years.
“About two weeks ago, eight calves were stolen from me,” says Goosen. “It was the first time cattle had been stolen from me. Jacques du Toit of Bushveld Security, head of our local security group, showed me footage taken by their cameras that clearly shows two heavily loaded bakkies driving around our area.”
Du Toit says: “The night of the theft, we saw the suspicious bakkies and some of my security guards tried to intercept them but were not successful.”
Goosen filed a case with the police and pressed them to investigate. “My father, Ockie, called the person we suspect is in control of the syndicate and asked him to please stop stealing our cattle. We know the police won’t do anything about it but we won’t just leave it there,” says Goosen.
“He then told my father that it wasn’t him and heard that we were going to file a case with the police. Now we’ll see how serious he can really be; he’s going to wipe out all our cattle.”
‘War’
After that, the man regularly called Goosen’s father with threats and sent a WhatsApp message saying: “Don’t start a war you can’t finish.”
Last Saturday at around 9pm, Du Toit called Goosen and said security cameras showed the man on his way towards the land Goosen rents near Bray.
Goosen and Sevenster drove to the area and went through all 12 of his cattle posts but noticed nothing suspicious.
At around 1am on Sunday, Goosen, who was still in the area, received another call that the suspect’s bakkie was in his area. The bakkie then drove past him and Sevenster.
“We chased him until about 4am. At times, we lost contact with him but then noticed him again. He then went into an informal settlement and we waited for him in the road in case he drove in our direction again,” Goosen says.
Du Toit saw on the cameras how the man took a back road in the opposite direction. Goosen thought they had outsmarted him and went home.
However, at about 9am on Sunday, one of Goosen’s workers called him and said he had to come because the cattle were dying and they didn’t know what to do.
“We then saw that there was poison in the trough where they drink water and tried to save those we could by giving them activated charcoal,” says Goosen.
“The police officer who came to take our statement told me he was going to open a case and send it to court, but he couldn’t promise me anything would happen.”
Farmers in the area dug trenches on Monday and the carcasses of the cattle were thrown in, burned and covered. Twenty-five calves are now being raised by hand.
<caption> The carcasses of 33 cows and 11 calves are burned and buried. Photo: Supplied
“With all the bad, I am also overwhelmed by the large number of people who have opened their hearts and hands to us and even want to donate cattle to help me get started again,” says Goosen.
The case has since been transferred from Bray police station to Vryburg, North West. “In addition to Ockert’s two cases, the person we suspect is behind the cattle theft and poisoning is connected to another nine cases of cattle theft reported this year,” says Du Toit.
Police answers to Landbou.com’s questions will be added when they are received.
