|
|
South Africa: Poachers Recruiting Township Jobless
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 21 May 2008
Candice Bailey
Cape Town
Poaching syndicates are no longer using only skilled divers from fishing communities but are now turning to unemployed township residents who can swim to do their dirty work.
The trend has been noted by Table Mountain National Park rangers, who say that more and more poachers who are not regular divers were being arrested.
Justin Buchmann, senior section ranger in the southern section of the Table Mountain National Park, said: "We noticed the syndicates are going into areas which have many unemployed people and selecting those who can swim and giving them kits to poach for them. Before, it was mostly regular divers who were poaching, now it's not."
This was the case with their latest arrest on Thursday when 541 abalone were confiscated at Smitswinkel Bay during a joint operation between the park's specialised poaching unit and police.
One carrier was arrested with the abalone on him and while the divers initially got away, they were later arrested at a roadblock and were fined for illegal entry.
The divers had provided incorrect information so dockets were opened because the rangers needed to establish exactly who they were and where they came from.
The Simon's Town magistrate's court is still to determine the fine that they will face.
Buchmann said the suspects were all from informal settlements.
He said that they had noticed an increase in poaching in the area in recent weeks.
"In an attempt to combat that, we have staff out 24 hours a day," he said.
|
Bad weather was no longer a deterrent to poachers, he added.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Cape Argus. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
