Less than half the arrests made by police in connection with stock theft last year resulted in successful prosecutions and convictions, a National Assembly (NA) parliamentarian has heard.

Statistics provided by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu for 2023 showed Democratic Alliance (DA) Northern Cape public representative Lisa Schickerling lived in a province with the lowest number of prosecutions/convictions for stock theft last year.

Her home province recorded 368 stock theft arrests which resulted in 155 prosecutions/convictions putting it fourth arrest-wise.

At the top end of the scale was Limpopo where policemen and women attached to stock theft and endangered species units arrested 837 suspects. These were turned into a 42% successful prosecution/conviction rate, with 351 successful prosecutions in 2023.

The second highest stock theft arrest rate of 509 was recorded in the Eastern Cape with 148 successful prosecutions/convictions last year. KwaZulu-Natal with 401 arrests and 109 prosecutions/convictions was third, followed by Schickerling’s home province.

Western Cape (252 arrests and 101 prosecutions/convictions) rated fifth with Gauteng (184/56) and Free State (178 and 58) sixth followed by North West (107/24) and Mpumalanga (103/39).

All told police arrested 2 939 stock theft suspects in 2023 with 1 041 prosecutions/convictions.

The SA Police Service has 94 stock and endangered species units nationally. According to Mchunu they are geographically positioned in all nine provinces. Part of their mandate is the establishment of stock theft information centres (STICs) and provincial forums. These include representative agricultural organisations such as African Farmers’ Association of South Africa (AFASA), the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU), the National African Farmers’ Union (NAFU), Agriculture South Africa (AgriSA) and others. There is also a National Stock Theft Forum (NSTF) which meets regularly on a provincial basis with emerging threats always on the agenda.