This after the Biodiversity Criminal Investigations Unit, which falls under the provincial Department of Rural, Environment and Agriculture Development (DREAD), and the SAPS “clamped down on illegal netting suspects” recently, according to the department’s spokesperson Thandiwe Moripe-Thabethe.
The department notified the police of illegal activity taking place at the dam, after a tip-off. “About nine suspects have been arrested and five of them released due to lack of evidence linking them to the crime,” said Moripe-Thabethe in a statement.
DREAD MEC Manketsi Tlhape has called on the community living around the dam to “stay alert to any further illegal netting and report [it]”. Tlhape said the arrests sent a strong message to all those engaged in illegal netting.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has previously condemned the ‘light’ suspended sentences handed down by the courts, saying they were not a deterrent to fishing transgressions.
