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Prioritise poaching crimes
Writer De Waal Steyn
Recommendations to classify abalone poaching as an organised crime would make life difficult for poachers as they could then be prosecuted under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca), leading to much stiffer sentences.
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This follows last week’s presentation of the Western Cape Police Ombudsman’s annual report to the provincial Standing Committee for Community Safety. In his report, Ombudsman Johan Brand gave feedback on a complaint of poor response by the SAPS at Overstrand stations – including Gansbaai, Kleinmond, Hermanus and Stanford – particularly as it relates to the poaching of abalone.
Following a request to SAPS’ Provincial Commissioner for a contingency plan on abalone poaching, the Ombudsman reports the following response from SAPS: “On abalone poaching it deems mentioning that the protection of marine living resources is regulated by the Marine Living Resources Act. In terms of this Act, the responsible minister may appoint Fisheries Control Officers. They have a wide range of powers and functions, even more than members of SAPS. These Fisheries Control Officers are responsible for enforcing the Act.”
According to the civil organisation, Community Against Abalone Poaching (CAAP), they welcome the Ombudsman’s report. “The SAPS is not capable of fighting poaching and it seems as if there is no political will to put them in a situation where they will be. We are happy about the recommendations in the report, but one never knows how long we will have to wait before action is taken on a national level,” said CAAP.
Brand notes in his report that although crime statistics indicate a stabilisation in crime over the last three financial years, the data is not reliable as communities have indicated that they no longer report, crime due to the poor responsiveness of SAPS, and because they don’t trust SAPS.
The Ombudsman notes that the cases sent to court and the detection rates at all the stations would be much lower if the arrests for crimes dependent on police action (drug and firearm arrests and driving under the influence of liquor) were not included. “The crimes that are really affecting the communities thus remain unsolved.”
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