The departments of environmental affairs and justice are seriously considering extending environmental courts across the country, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa said on Wednesday.
Government hoped to emulate the success of the country’s first such court in Hermanus in the Western Cape, opened last month, he said, in reply to questions in the National Assembly.
”We are very proud of it (the Hermanus court) and we will certainly do everything we can do to further these courts,” the minister said.
The court — which functions at the level of a regional court, but with a higher penalty jurisdiction — is intended to help government in the war against perlemoen (abalone) poaching. Moosa said the authorities had the abalone poachers ”on the
run”, as evident by a movement of poachers outside the Western Cape.
”We have now found growing poaching in the Eastern Cape, so we must ensure that we extend (the courts) to the Eastern Cape and other parts of the country.”
The courts would deal with cases involving all marine resources and were not restricted merely to abalone poaching, he said. – Sapa