Cattle rustlers hit Raffingora-Mash West…thieves invade kraals, slaughter beasts at night

Samson Muchirahindo

Cattle rustlers have invaded some parts of Mashonaland West province, in Makosa village in Raffingora.

Villagers were left counting their loses as the stock thieves invaded kraals slaughtering beasts.

Police are said to have launched a manhunt of the unidentified thieves suspected to be supplying backyard food outlets in the country.

Zvimba District Information Officer Mr Kachikuli tipped members of the press to investigate the stock theft on social media today.

The sad happenings occur at a time when statistics from the Zimbabwe Republic Police anti-stock theft department showed that more than 3 000 cattle were stolen across the country in the first four months the previous year alone.

January had the highest number, with 1 069 reported cases, and the number decreased significantly to 622 cases in April.

Chief Superintendent Andrew Phiri, the staff officer in the department of anti-stock theft at the Police General Headquarters, said most cases were a result of failure by farmers to pen their cattle and count them regularly.

He urged farmers to count their herd from time to time, practice penning and stop the habit of just letting their cattle graze without any supervision, as failure to do so might result in theft.

He also said branding was an important part of securing cattle, as most thieves prefer unbranded beasts.

Phiri advised the public to report cases of stock theft immediately to allow police investigations to take place promptly.