A business transaction that started with a gentleman’s agreement between two farmers led one down a path of huge financial loss, and the other convicted and sentenced for his misdeeds.
Prominent Karoo farmer Wentzel Lombard will spend the next three years under correctional supervision, working off 576 hours of community service at a shelter, and must pay the complainant R100,000 after he was convicted of fraud.
Though the complainant, Bothaville farmer Albertus Steenkamp, stated that he was not someone who held grudges, he mentioned that his encounters with Lombard had eroded his trust in anyone he now conducted business with.
“Looking back now I should have seen some of the red flags, but he seemed trustworthy and we had an agreement that seemed beneficial to us both,” Steenkamp said after sentencing was handed down on Thursday.
“But now, seven frustrating years down the line, I’m glad to know some form of justice has been served.”
The case dates back to July 2017 when Steenkamp took out a R3m loan from livestock marketing firm Vleissentraal to buy 191 “heavily pregnant” cows from Lombard, only to find out that he had been duped and that 86 of the cows were never pregnant.
This resulted in a loss of more than R1m.
At the time, despite the Eastern Cape being in the grips of the worst drought in history, Lombard, of Nxuba (formerly Cradock), had garnered a reputation as a successful agricultural entrepreneur.
In 2017, he was lauded as one of the largest mohair producers in the country after selling 20 tonnes of hair sheared from angora goats.
Steenkamp and some associates had headed to Nxuba for a cattle auction where he hoped to buy pregnant cows at a good price and have them transported back to his farm some 600km further north.
Due to the drought, he knew farmers were selling off good quality livestock at better prices than he could get closer to home, so he travelled to Graaff-Reinet where they spent the night before heading to Nxuba the next day.
However, roadworks along the way delayed them, and they arrived after the auction had already started.
“Lombard was the first person I encountered and he told me I was too late, the auction was already under way.
“But he was very nice and we started talking.
“He asked what we were looking for and told me he had about 200 heavily pregnant cows that he was looking to sell, and if we were interested he could take us to look at them.
“It sounded like a good deal and he seemed trustworthy, so we agreed to go with him,” Steenkamp said.
They followed Lombard to a nearby petrol station where he left his bakkie and travelled with them to a farm.
There he showed them a herd with a few dozen heads of cattle.
Along the way, Steenkamp repeatedly explained to Lombard that he was only interested in heavily pregnant cows, and Lombard assured him that he had what Steenkamp was looking for, and that the cows had been certified as pregnant by a veterinarian.
“I was so adamant that my associates even became annoyed with me, telling me to stop hassling the poor man on whether the cows were pregnant.
“He showed us the smaller herd, and at a glance they looked to be in good condition.
“I asked where the rest of the cows were and he told me they were in the mountains and on another farm, but assured me that they were all pregnant and in a similar condition to the ones we saw,” Steenkamp recalled.
Looking back, Steenkamp said Lombard had too many excuses for why they could not see the other cows, and he should have insisted on inspecting them himself.
But Lombard seemed trustworthy and at that stage he had no reason to doubt him.
They went to Lombard’s home where they sat to discuss the transaction and agreed on R14,000 per cow.
Due to the size of the transaction, and the distance back to Bothaville in the Free State, Steenkamp requested a R40,000 discount on the price to help cover the transport costs.
“Lombard agreed. I stood up from my chair, walked over to him, and shook his hand.
“I felt like we had made a good deal and everyone was coming out on top.”
Within a week, Steenkamp had secured a R3m loan from Vleissentraal and the first truck left Nxuba with cows bound for Bothaville.
But when the first cows got off the truck on Steenkamp’s farm, he immediately knew he had been duped.
Many of the cows were not nearly in as good condition as he had been told, and within a few days some of his staff realised that many of them were not pregnant.
“One of my employees came to me and asked if they should put a bull with the cows.
“I told them that was not necessary as they were already pregnant, but on further inspection we found that several of them were on heat, which would not have been possible had they been pregnant.”
Steenkamp called a veterinarian to the farm and found that 86 cows were indeed not pregnant.
He phoned Lombard who told him he did not know what went wrong but he would reimburse him.
Lombard refunded Steenkamp an amount of R280,000 and told him he would pay him the rest once he returned home from holiday with his family.
Steenkamp immediately appointed an attorney to handle the situation, but shortly after the initial reimbursement communication with Lombard dried up and Steenkamp decided to report the matter to the police.
Lombard was subsequently charged with fraud in the amount of R1,072,500 for the 86 cows which he falsely claimed were pregnant.
Seven years after the incident, Lombard was convicted in the Nxuba magistrate’s court in September 2024.
On Thursday, he was finally sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years on condition he not be convicted of a similar offence during that period, and that he pay Steenkamp R100,000 in compensation.
In addition, Lombard will undergo 36 months of correctional supervision.
He was also ordered to serve 576 hours of community service at a shelter in the small town.
While Steenkamp said he would have liked to see a heavier sentence, he hoped this conviction would open people’s eyes to the possibility of pursuing matters like this.
“Many people told me to just drop the case and that nothing would come of it.
“At times I became very frustrated as the case was continuously delayed.
“But people need to realise that the justice system works and they should not be afraid to pursue these cases if they have been wronged.”
HeraldLIVE
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