Although we in South Africa do not live in a TEOTWAWKI situation,
we routinely have to deal with constant attempts to appropriate life, possessions,
and
freedom that could be good training for a
TEOTWAWKI
situation. The following are some real life insights as to what and how we
handle these regular attempts at property liberation on our homesteads and
surrounds.
We are fortunate to live well outside of South Africa’s largest city,
our community is isolated and not visible from any main road. To a point where
people that live in nearby areas do not know where our entry road is, and have
to be given detailed instructions on how to get to our community. (I’ve
even had a 20 year resident of an adjacent area tell me outright that I’m
lying and no such road/area exists. What a great place to be!) There are a
total of 24 families in our area, not all participate in the community [security
effort] and only one
other family has a preparedness mindset. Almost every member of the community
is very private and the idea of personal privacy and property rights is taken
very seriously. Of the 24 families there are nine that take an active role
in protecting the community totaling 15 men. Our community is situated in
a blind
valley with a single very defendable entrance, there are however two additional
tracks that can be used for either a north or south escape route if you know
where to find them.
Most of our threats consist of one or more of the following.(In no particular
order) Stock
theft, cable
theft, fencing or dropper [(cattle chute)] theft, house breaking,
armed home invasions, rape and other crimes. There is also a marked increase
in produce theft (directly from fields) in recent months.
What also needs to be understood is that in the rural areas there are specific
crime ‘seasons’. Outright you can peg the December/January and
Easter periods as a very high probability of stock theft, then the last two
weeks in any month with increases in housebreaking and implement/equipment
theft.
Our analysis of this suggests that people are looking for meat in December/January
and April for family [summer and fall] feasts. And at month end they are looking
for a bit of cash to tide them over till payday or they have just plain run
out
of
cash
and need
more.
The number one livestock theft item is sheep, they are simple to lift onto
ones shoulders and carry off without a sound (sheep make no noise at night
if manhandled). Cattle
are the next most frequent target. of theft. How this
is achieved is the cattle are often liberated early evening (20h00 – 21h00)
and a team of thieves will work as follows. A Cutter will walk ahead and cut
any
fencing
about 100m
in
front
of the cattle, then three drivers will drive the cattle along the chosen route,
typically the hocks are slashed so that the cattle cannot run, they are then
prodded with sharp sticks or bicycle spokes in the correct direction. The animals
are generally butchered in the veld and
only choice portions are taken, or they are herded directly to a township/village
for slaughter. They are often
herded over 20 or 30 km in one night. Making track and trace is sometimes extremely
difficult. The sad thing about this is that if you do recover your animals
before they
slaughter them, the animals need to be put down anyway. We have
even had a situation where large ‘steaks’ were cut out of living
cattle and they were left to be found in the morning. Goats and Pigs are very
low down on the list as they will vocally announce their displeasure at being
manhandled. This
PDF describes another very well known way of transporting
stolen stock long distances.
With regards to implements and equipment theft. Very high on the list are hand
tools, power tools, generators, water pumps, borehole pumps, and electric gate
motors--in fact anything that can be pawned or sold off quickly. A new phenomenon
that has recently reared its head is that people are stealing metal gates and
droppers, we have yet to catch one in the act, however we believe it’s
for the scrap metal market. New fencing is also quick to go, especially weld
mesh and Bonnox-type
fencing. As it’s easy to roll up and cart away,
and has a quick resale value on the open market if priced right.
To counteract the effects of crime in our area we have established for a number
of years now a very effective farm watch system that includes the following.
(I will cover each point separately to provide insight into the logic and tactics):
Highly visible motorised patrols: The main point of these is to provide a “show
of force” and it is mainly used as a deterrent during low crime times.
The use of vehicle mounted Search/spot lights is heavily employed. One of the
largest drawbacks is that ‘they’ can see you coming and a) either
scamper off to find a quieter area to harass, or b) just drop into the grass
that is typically 1 metre (3 feet) high, and then effectively become invisible.
Another drawback
is that once the patrol ends this can be easily be seen, due to a
lack of lights sweeping the roads and properties.
Foot patrols: These are undertaken specifically during times
of harassment, or in peak crime times. Foot patrols generally consist of two
separate patrols
of minimum three individuals each, contact via radio is available but only
used as and when required. A preset route is followed, there are a total of
nine
routes, typically only four are covered by both patrols in an evening. Each
route has
specific LP/OPs developed
as well as caches of food/water and medical [supplies] on the longer routes.
Some routes are never more than about 300
- 500 meters from a lot of the homesteads and others can take one over two
kilometers
from
the nearest homestead.
LP/OPs: Generally performed on off nights where ‘nothing
is going on’.
Members will walk out onto their own properties and take up specific LP/OP
to generally [listen and] observe. This is often tied in with the final checks
on animals, stores and stables. The interesting thing is you are able to track
the movement
of an individual(s) from well over two kilometres away, just by listening to
the night sounds of animals. Dogs, Plovers,
Geese, Guinea
Fowl, and peacocks, frogs/toads,
and others can all give an indication as to what is happening in the area.
We have got to a point where just by listening to the sounds of the local critters,
both wild and domestic, we are able to make a good judgment call if a impromptu
patrol needs to rustled up. Most evenings we can track the return of staff
members and labourers as they walk back from the local shebeens.
Contact Routes: These are predefined routes that each farmer will
take when a contact is established. This has worked very well for us on a number
of occasions
leading to the arrest of six individuals and the peppering of at least three
that have escaped, with bird shot liberally inserted into their Gluteus
maximus.
The adage in our area is not to have someone die on your property, rather wound
[them] and let them spread the word. It the best advertising you can get for
a peaceful nights rest. They also cannot go to a hospital as this raises questions.
We
have heard via the grapevine of one individual that had a friend digging around
in his butt with a piece of bent piece of wire to try extricate shot. Somehow
I don’t think he is coming back. [JWR Adds: Things are
different here in the oh-so litigious US, where wounding a miscreant is an
invitation to a huge civil lawsuit. I advise American, Canadian and British
SurvivalBlog readers: Don't pull the trigger unless your life is immediately
threatened.]
Basically there are two types of contact:
1) Farm based. When there is an attack on a particular farm then the alarm
is raised via, land line, cell phone, radio or audible sirens. Information
is generally given to wives for relay, as husbands prepare, as to what portion
of the farmstead is threatened. A ring is established around the farm with
selected individuals providing direct support at the farmstead, once the farmstead
is cleared then the ring closes along predefined routes. BTW, it is vitally
important that the outer ring is maintained, as often a lot more is seen from
the ring than from the farmstead. In addition all lights on all farms get turned
off, specifically to assist the guys with Night Vision, but we have found that
those that don’t, can also see better without distracting ambient light
sources. Lastly, the explicit rule is that if it’s your farm / livestock
under attack then you are not to leave the house! There is
no need for a hostage situation or to allow for a penetration of your family's
security, or God forbid
a friendly fire incident. That is why you have neighbours.
2) Infrastructure based: Typically this is cable
theft, we are very proud of
the fact that we are one of the few rural areas in South Africa that has had
no interruption of our telecoms service in well over 18 months. We have taken
the initiative to install alarms on our lines that activate as soon as there
is a voltage drop. ([Caused by a] cut line) This triggers a response where
farmers scramble to cover specific points. The amazing thing is how fast
these cable
thieves
can move. They cut and drag 150-200 metres of 50-pair cable well over 500 meters
in a matter minutes. It took us a while to get our attack honed, but
now we have a 100% strike rate and no more cable theft.
Most patrol members are armed with Shotguns and occasionally with a sidearm,
a 2-way radio, torch, Night Vision if they have the gear, and a small first
aid kit is carried by one member. A handful of heavy duty cable ties [for use
as handcuffs are also carried.
Each member is also at liberty to equip themselves with what they feel is necessary.
What we find is that new members tend to go all out on kit, and it only takes
about two weeks for them to start reducing the amount of glory kit they carry
to the minimum. (We actually have a pool bet going on the number of patrols
walked with full kit, we always do the two longest for them on the trot. Hey,
we need some fun.)
Some additional information, many thieves will plan their attacks long in advance
with scouting and intel well sourced, either via the local labourer population
or via direct observation. One of the most common and disturbing warning signs
that you will get, is that dogs
are being poisoned in the area. Depending on
the poison used, it will generally be a fast acting (in a matter of minutes)
the most common poison is Aldicarb
or Temik a restricted use agricultural pesticide.
Luckily we have not had any incidents in our area, but all around us there
are reports of multiple dogs going down in a single night.
Finally, one of the benefits of living in [the old] South Africa (pre-1994)
was conscription, with two years of compulsory military service,
for most straight
out of school.
This
has put most of the ‘older’ (I say that with care as I’m
yet to hit 45) members of our group with a military service background and
we have been through some of the Border
War. All of this helps to set the tone
of patrols and provides the training and discipline for younger members.
