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.
