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www.thevillagenews.co.za
21 August 2019
Putting paid to abalone poaching remained largely dormant. From P 1 In the statement issued by MEC Fritz, he undertook also to refer the ombudsman’s findings to the Standing Committee for Community Safety in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, which will further review the report as per the constitutional powers of such a multi-party committee. Another recommendation was that the Provincial Minister of Environmental Affairs should address the backlog concerning the disposal of abalone at the storage facilities with the National Minister of Environmental Affairs and Fisheries. MEC Fritz gave the assurance that he would work closely with the necessary stakeholders to ensure that these recommendations were reviewed and implemented, using every tool at his disposal to safeguard rural and urban communities in the Western Cape against poaching of any kind. Although the Chairperson of the Provincial Standing Committee on Community Safety was approached for comment on these developments, none was forthcoming. However, the response from former MEC Beverley Schäfer, Provincial Minister of Economic Opportunities, was positive, with certain caveats. In 2017, following an extensive series of public hearings to explore solutions to the problem of abalone poaching, she had tabled a report making extensive practical recommendations regarding its curtailment, which have, however,
One of the ombudsman’s recommendations which she is particularly happy about is that abalone poaching should be upgraded to the status of a transnational crime in line with rhino horn or ivory poaching. “I can’t actually believe that it has taken them so long to treat it with the seriousness it deserves and of course that also means fitting the punishment to the crime. Up to now it has been regarded as a relatively minor offence.” She is also happy that he has made a point of requesting that steps be taken to better control the storage of confiscated abalone. There was reportedly a backlog of over 200 tons stored in the unit until recently when another break-in took place and much of it disappeared, with allegations of inside involvement. “This is organised crime – it is not a random event and these criminals are not acting on their own,” former MEC Schäfer points out. “Once again one must also ask, what is happening to the money that is supposed to be generated by the auctioning off of confiscated abalone? It should be going into the Marine Living Resources Fund for the protection of our coastal waters, but it is unclear exactly how much is in the fund and how much of it has been used for this purpose. An urgent investigation should be launched into this matter. I feel confident that very little money has been ploughed into protecting the Overberg’s coastal resources. “This is an important document and it does
Eight poaching vessels confiscated A total of eight rubber ducks reportedly belonging to perlemoen poachers have been confiscated during the past two weeks. Members of the Overstrand Law Enforcement Task Team confiscated six vessels on Friday 9 August in Pearly Beach. Another two boats were confiscated in the same area a week later. Noone was arrested during these operations. This follows the arrest of two suspected poachers on Thursday 15 August after they were found in possession of three bags of perlemoen. On 6 August two men were arrested in Sandbaai after their illegal processing plant was raided by members of the Hawks and the Department of Fisheries. A total of 4 287 fresh and 11 498 dried perlemoen to the value of R3,9 million rand was seized during the operation. Poachers, with a total disregard for law, have been blatantly removing thousands of units of
perlemoen from local waters during daylight hours. At times more than 150 poachers are to be found at any given time in the ocean on our coastline. Unless urgent steps are taken to protect abalone, the species faces extinction due to extreme poaching, says TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, in a report titled Empty Shells: An assessment of abalone poaching and trade from Southern Africa. According to the report, “Over the past 18 years, poachers have stripped South African coastal waters of at least 96 million abalone. Efforts to curb the illegal trade have roundly failed. Once abundant, the population of South African abalone Haliotis midae is declining at unprecedented levels. On average, 2 000 tons of abalone are bagged annually by poachers – 20 times the legal take in an illicit industry estimated to be worth at least US$60 million (R628 million) a year.
attempt to hold police to greater account,” she continues, “but it is also up to National Minister Barbara Creecy to launch a thorough investigation into the officials of the Fisheries Department. "I believe she must read this report and act firmly in terms of the alleged complicity of members of that Department. I have faith in her effectiveness as a Minister and I will make sure that she also receives my 2017 report, to read in conjunction with this one.” Schäfer emphasises once again that more effective law enforcement is only part of the solution to the problem of abalone poaching. Parallel processes should be taking place simultaneously, the most important being the urgent development and implementation of an all-encompassing inter-departmental anti-poaching strategy, involving both national and provincial levels of government as well as agencies like the Hawks, instead of relying on the largely uncoordinated, under-resourced and haphazard efforts currently taking place.
“The DAFF (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) doesn’t even have a boat to patrol the coast and it has about two officials trying to monitor sometimes up to 1 000 poachers in the Overberg. Naturally, they are too afraid to take any action. I mean this is ridiculous!” She is still adamant that the issuing of smallscale fishing licences should be a provincial competency and not a national one. “Only three provinces are really affected and for some official sitting in Pretoria to make these determinations doesn’t make any sense. We are on the ground, we know what’s going on and it would be in everybody’s interests, if we could work with the fishermen to protect our resources.” What seems clear is that our role as a local authority, environmental group or concerned citizen is to continue putting pressure on the various departments to carry out their mandate, to go on asking questions and to hold all stakeholders to account, before our abalone is only a distant memory.
The following recommendations were made by the Police Ombudsman with particular reference to abalone poaching:
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Ensure that organised projects regarding poaching are initiated and investigated by the Organized Crime Unit of SAPS. Abalone poaching should be classified as organised crime in terms of Section 16 of the South African Police Service Act, Act 68 of 1995; Establish an Environmental Court, in consultation with the National Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development; Ensure that the National Integrated Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking (NISCWT) be urgently submitted to National Cabinet for approval, and Categorise abalone poaching as a serious crime, in line with rhino poaching.
