Happy Tom
Thousands of poor people in the Eastern Cape are benefiting from cattle and sheep rustling which is devastating commercial farmers in the region.
“Thandi”, a 45-year-old woman who lives in the Joza township, Grahamstown, has three hungry children to feed. Tonight they will feast.
Thandi has a whole sheep in her fridge. It cost just R50. In downtown Grahamstown the same animal would have cost her R350.
Thandi, a single mother, said: “These guys were walking door-to-door yesterday offering meat.”
“I asked `How much?’ and they said `It depends. How much do you want?’ I said I want a whole sheep. They said `Fifty bucks’.”
She asks no questions because she lives in a mud hut, has hungry children to feed and she earns a meagre wage as a domestic worker. “I didn’t ask any questions. I could see in their eyes that the meat was stolen.”
“Zola” is a 19-year-old youth who hangs out in the streets of Joza. It turns out that he is Thandi’s supplier. “We went to the farm to assess the situation. We checked with the workers about where they stayed and how far the farmer’s house is from the sheep.
“The next day we went. We wanted to take as many as possible. There were five of us. Each had to carry their own pasile [parcel/sheep].
“We grabbed them by the throat and we krwitsha’d [strangled] them. Then we put it on our back.
“We came back in the bush. We never used the road. We went straight to a shack here and cut them up. Next morning we went out looking for customers.
“We make good money out of this. Five sheep is peanuts to umfama [farmers]. We thought this could make us a lot of money as many big businessmen in this town, whom I can not mention, started like this. Some of them are still in the business today.” — Ecna