DA welcomes 3-year jail term of former ANC MP for Schweizer-Reneke stock theft
9 May 2023
The DA in North West welcomes the landmark three-year jail sentence handed down yesterday by the Schweizer-Reneke Regional Court to former ANC Member of Parliament, Ms Mapule Veronica Mafolo, and her co-accused, Mr Thabo Freddy Phutiyagae.
The pair were found guilty of stock theft. They stole two Bonsmara calves in January 2018 from a farm in Schweizer-Reneke. The farmer noticed two calves missing, requested his brother to open a case of stock theft at the SAPS, and was later called to the Vryburg Auction Kraal, where he successfully identified his missing calves, and evidence then led to the arrest of the convicted pair.
In December 2022, Ditsobotla ANC Councillor Sibusiso Thamaga was arrested alongside two accomplices for allegedly stealing 24 sheep in Bakerville. In this case, bail has been granted, and the case is before court, but ANC Councillor Thamaga continues to serve in the Ditsobotla Council.
Stock theft is a massive criminal scourge in North West that continues to rob commercial and subsistence farmers of their livestock. That a former member of Parliament and a current serving Councillor could implicate themselves in this sort of criminality despite taking an oath of office to uphold and advance the Constitution, to serve, protect, and nurture the rights of all South Africans, is an absolute disgrace.