When not intercepting illegal immigrants or smugglers attempting to enter South Africa loaded with contraband, soldiers deployed on the border protection tasking Operation Corona are often asked to round up livestock illegally grazing on South African land.
In recent months, Operation Corona statistics, as reported by the Joint Operations Division of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), noted several occasions where soldiers herded livestock from neighbouring countries to either the SA Police Service (SAPS) or “the nearest animal pound”.
Soldiers posted on the KwaZulu-Natal border in July sent small stock (goats and sheep) worth R45 000 back to Mozambique while in Limpopo, soldiers recovered illegally grazing cattle worth R376 000. In August, soldiers recovered R1.2 million worth of livestock, while in September, Joint Operations put the value of illegal grazing and small stock recovered at R180 000 for the Botswana border and R73 600 for the small stock found on the South African side of the Free State/Lesotho border. Joint Operations said for October the value of animals found to be illegally grazing amounted to R1.5 million across five borderlines.
That this illegal practice is growing was evidenced in the Joint Operations Division November statistics for Operation Corona. In total cattle, goats and sheep valued at R3 million were herded to pounds and safe enclosures ahead of owners paying fines for their release. Lesotho was, as has become the norm, the biggest culprit with Mozambican and Swazi stock farmers also not averse to putting stock on South African pasturelands.
In addition to cattle, goats and sheep, soldiers also encounter goats, pigs, horses, donkeys and mules while on patrol.
The ‘foreign’ livestock, according to the SANDF Directorate Corporate Communication (DCC) as supplied by Joint Operations, is identified by the lack of either a brand or other identification mark, such as a tag on the ear. South African livestock has to be branded or marked for identification purposes with a registered number obtained from the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) proving ownership.
If the livestock is accompanied by herders or owners when spotted by soldiers they are handed to police for formal arrest. This is followed by a fine for illegal grazing after which they are escorted to the border for deportation.
Joint Operations notes illegal grazing is prevalent in areas where there is either no border fencing or the water level in rivers denoting borders is “so low” as to allow livestock to simply walk over. Landlocked Lesotho, abutting Free State, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as well as Botswana, bordered by the North West province, are where most illegal grazing is stopped by soldiers.
“It is almost impossible to prevent illegal grazing until proper border fences are put in place,” Joint Operations, via DCC, informed defenceWeb.
Illegal grazing, this publication was informed, is taken seriously and is a regular agenda item at operational liaison co-ordinating meetings between senior SANDF officers and their counterparts from neighbouring countries.
To put a value on livestock grazing illegally and impounded – temporarily – in South Africa, Army officers call on the expertise residing in 94 SAPS stock and endangered species units. Police Minister Senzo Mchunu recently told a Parliamentary questioner these units are sited in all nine provinces with establishment of stock information centres (STICs) part of their responsibilities.
