HA-MUILA – The manager of Mapogo a Mathakga Security, Ms Lucy Cholo, expressed concern this week that working with the Tshitale SAPS is extermely unproductive.

Mapogo, a company employed by Bandelierkop farmers to prevent criminal activities, especially poaching, held a meeting towards the end of April this year at the Muila tribal office to caution residents of Tembisa, Thothololo, Kwaaidraai, Vlakfontein, Muila-Thondoni and Gumani to stop poaching at the Bandelierkop farms.

During the gathering, an old man said that he had on several occasions tried to tip off the Tshitale SAPS about the selling of game at Thothololo, but the police officers asked him: “Do you want to work as a policeman or what?” After discovering tracks of poachers at Mr Deon Lubbe’s farm a fortnight ago, Mapogo’s officials went to Thothololo Village to ask the community where they could buy venison.

“We went to attend a funeral at Kwaaidraai with the sole purpose of identifying individuals selling venison. As we were asking people as to where could we get wild pig meat, one resident came forward to say that he could give us a head of wild pig provided we could give him R40,” said Cholo.

She added that, after buying the wild pig head at the alleged poacher’s home, they then requested him to accompany them to purchase petrol at the local filling station, before taking him back to Kwaaidraai. Little did he know that he had agreed to their taking him to the police station. “When we reached the police station, we disclosed ourselves, that we are the people guarding the Bandelierkop farms to prevent poaching,” she said.

Cholo said that the idea of bringing the poacher to the SAPS with an exhibit came after the Tshitale SAPS always told them that the police would react swiftly if they were furnished with information and some concrete evidence to prove the suspect guilty in a court of law. She said that the poacher confessed in the presence of the police that he did not hunt on these farms alone. His friend still had the rest of the meat at that time, but the Tshitale SAPS officers only nodded, saying that they could only arrest the second suspect after they had opened the case against the one brought to them by Mapogo, which they never did, according to Cholo.

“My deep concern is that the suspect was given bail of R1 300 and released without paying it, on May 30. Where is he going to get that money to pay his bail, because he is unemployed? I still maintain that justice was done, but the Tshitale SAPS’s inefficiency led to the release of the suspect. Why didn’t they go and arrest the second suspect, the moment his friend confessed that they were hunting and selling the meat together,” she complained.

Cholo said that, as of now, she regards the Tshitale SAPS as the main cause of criminal activities at the Bandelierkop farms. Boschoek farm owner, Mr Deon Lubbe, said that, as their farms are situated between the Tshitale and Bandelierkop SAPS policing areas, the unhelpful Tshitale SAPS are failing to prevent poaching within their policing area.

“Hunting on our farms is becoming a bigger problem on a daily basis. If we report a case to the police, they come to the crime scene after some days and make no arrests. As game and cattle farmers, we want to reveal that no fewer than two kudus are killed by poachers on our farms per month. Wild pigs are the easiest to catch. In one night, about eight can be killed by poachers hunting with about 15 dogs. Truly speaking, this is no longer hunting, but a business.”

Lubbe said that farmers know that the police do not have time and enough vehicles, but on this matter, they seems to be the stumbling block.