Workers use council cars for poaching

Cape Town municipal employees using city council vehicles have been caught poaching the Peninsula's precious perlemoen and crayfish during working hours.

Council staff were caught red-handed in the act of harvesting protected marine resources twice this year and were arrested by the new marine conservation area protection unit of the Table Mountain National Park.

In the most recent incident on March 28, the unit arrested several men near Miller's Point in Simon's Town and confiscated a municipal vehicle. Among them was a fulltime municipal staff member who was in possession of 37 perlemoen. He was released on R500 bail and is due to appear in court on April 26.

On January 12 at Soetwater near Kommetjie, the unit arrested another permanent staff member and two seasonal staff in possession of 156 undersized crayfish. Another municipal vehicle was confiscated and is still impounded at the Ocean View police station. Both vehicles are being held by the police as evidence.

Charles Cooper, media liaison officer of the City of Cape Town, said the men arrested at Soetwater were released on R500 bail each and their case was pending.

"The city has taken disciplinary action and has subsequently dismissed the official involved," Cooper said. The official involved in the Miller's Point incident was under investigation. "He will shortly be charged in terms of the disciplinary code," he said.

Operations manager of the newly instituted marine conservation area protection unit, Robin Adams, said that in March they had arrested 10 people, including the municipal employees, and seized 264 shucked perlemoen and 37 crayfish.