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Police = fear a war has erupted between rival poachers and gangsters in Pearly Beach = after residents killed two suspected gang members believed to have robbed = poachers.
Another two have been injured, a poacher and a friend of the = suspected gangsters, allegedly from the 28s.
Police say the violence = erupted after three poachers were robbed of perlemoen and residents suspected = the gangsters were behind the attack.
A group had then gone to the = suspected gangsters' home, had allegedly attacked them and set their shack = alight with them in it.
Thirteen people were arrested and are expected = to appear in the Gansbaai Magistrate's Court tomorrow. Twelve face double = murder and arson charges, while the 13th suspect faces an attempted murder = charge.
Police said more arrests were imminent.
Late last year, = President Jacob Zuma, after a visit to Hawston, said he would urgently = consider lifting the ban on perlemoen harvesting, but that the poaching had = to end first.
The ban had been imposed due to dwindling perlemoen = resources.
On Tuesday Mike Tannet of Seawatch in the Overstrand said = competition between poachers was getting stronger as perlemoen became = scarcer.
He said descriptions of Monday's attacks suggested that rival = poaching groups were fighting.
While there were no other reports of = fighting between rival groups, Tannet said at the end of last year three = poachers had drowned in two separate incidents on the same night.
This = had raised suspicions and some had questioned whether rival poachers had = played a role in the drownings.
On Tuesday night, when the Cape Times = visited the Eluxolweni informal settlement where Monday's attack took place, = community members were getting ready to meet in a local hall to discuss the = situation.
The Cape Times team could not attend the meeting as the = police advised it to leave the area as it was too volatile.
Earlier, a = shocked resident described how he watched one of the two attacked men die in = front of his door.
He said he had heard screaming and shouts for help = late on Monday. When he looked outside, he saw a group of residents watching = the house in front of his burn down. The resident was so shaken he said he = wanted to move away from the area.
Another neighbour said the two men = who burnt to death, and who cannot be named until their families have been = informed, had apparently not been involved in any criminal activities. She = said the one was 24 years old and from Napier while the other was in his 40s = and from Cape Town.
The neighbour said both had moved into the = settlement about a year ago and did maintenance work at a nearby caravan = park. Yesterday, mounds of debris were all that remained of their shack. A = charred dog's carcass, a panga and a broken scale could be seen between the = blackened mounds.
Gansbaai police spokesman Christian le Roux said the = violence had been sparked by an attack on three poachers.
On Monday = afternoon, the three had been walking through a bushy area from Pearly Beach = with bags of perlemoen. Three gunmen had been lying in wait in the bushes = and, as the poachers walked by, Le Roux said the men had started shooting at = them.
"The suspects then got hold of the perlemoen and ran away," he = said.
One of the poachers, a 21-year-old, was wounded in his left leg = and rushed to hospital and Le Roux said officers had, managed to track down = and arrest a 24-year-old in connection with the shooting.
He said = that, when Eluxolweni residents heard about the attack, they suspected 28s = gangsters were behind it and that evening had gone to the shack where they = believed the gangsters lived. A group had stormed the shack in which the two = men and a woman were sitting.
Le Roux said they stabbed and shot at = the three and, during the commotion, the woman was shot, stabbed in the left = leg and hit over the head with an unknown object as she was = escaping.
She managed to get out of the shack.
The group then = left the shack and Le Roux said they set it alight with the two men still = inside.
Le Roux said the woman who had been injured in the attack was = in hospital on Tuesday.
Twelve residents had been arrested for the = incident, and a licensed 9mm pistol was confiscated and would be sent for = ballistic testing.
Le Roux said that, while gangsterism was not a = major problem in the area, poaching was. He said no other conflict between = gangsters and poachers had been reported there.
On Tuesday, Shaheen = Moola, a fisheries management consultant with the company Feike, said the = Gansbaai area was known for the "massive amounts of poaching" that took place = there.
He said Chinese triads, who channelled perlemoen to Asia, were = known to operate in the area and gangsters there were also known to dabble in = perlemoen.
Moola said that gangs "inevitably recruited perlemoen = poachers" in coastal areas including Gansbaai.
"They buy the perlemoen = from the poachers and then trade with the triads," he said.
Moola said = the core component of the drug tik, which was in demand in the province and = sold by gangsters, was ephedrine.
"China produces ephedrine and (the = gangsters) swop the perlemoen for this," he said.
Pearly Beach = Ratepayers' Association chairman Dudley Coetzee said it was an open and = accepted fact that poachers operated in the area.
"It takes place on a = regular basis and in broad daylight ... The gangs also operate here and = that's where the problems come in," he said.
Marine and Coastal = Management spokeswoman Carol Moses said the fisheries branch of the = Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries Department knew about the "alleged = 'poacher-on-poacher' violence".
She said, aside from teams of = fisheries inspectors, military veterans had also been deployed to combat = poaching.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape = Times on May 19, 2010
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