Botswana farmers threaten Zim invasion over cattle theft

By Alex Bell
29 June 2009

Farmers in the Bobirwa constituency of Botswana have threatened to invade Zimbabwe if their government does not intervene in the rampant stock theft paralysing the cattle farming community.

Stock theft cases have reached an alarming level in recent months, prompting many villagers to threaten taking the law into their own hands, by crossing the border and rooting out cattle rustlers in Zimbabwe. Villages close to the boundary line between the two countries have been worst hit by the spate of cattle theft, and Zimbabwean cattle rustlers are believed to be behind the surge.

According to reports by media in Botswana, many farmers have resorted to abandoning their own farming territories in an effort to protect their cattle and livelihoods. But the stock thieves are said to have wised up to the measures taken by the farmers and in the last month 40 herds of cattle have been stolen from one village alone. Bobirwa residents last week sent a delegation to the Office of the President demanding that the government intervene, and the Vice President reportedly promised to act on their demands.

Mob justice over the cattle thefts has already turned violent in Botswana, after a mob set fire to the house of a man suspected of being involved in cattle rustling. Two children sustained serious burns in the attack and were hospitalised.