Perlemoen boss Blignaut guilty
● Ex-employee’s testimony seals fate of Bay racketeer
An exhaustive exposé of Morne Blignaut’s criminal conduct, over a protracted period, proved his management of a perlemoen poaching operation beyond reasonable doubt.
The exposé, provided by a former employee, also showed a pattern of racketeering activities that established his guilt, a judge found on Wednesday.
In his judgment handed down in the Port Elizabeth High Court, judge Dayalin Chetty said the statement by state witness and former employee Brett Killian, 29, proved the state had a strong case against Blignaut.
Blignaut, 47, initially pleaded not guilty to two counts of racketeering and one of contravening the Marine Living Resources Act, but after investigating officer Warrant Officer Leon Eksteen testified, he admitted guilt.
After Chetty convicted Blignaut on all charges, prosecutor Martin le Roux handed in transcripts from the case against two Chinese men who were also employed by Blignaut.
They were sentenced in 2014.
The transcripts detailed the extent of the poaching and processing operation on a farm just outside Port Elizabeth.
The then chief inspector and station manager of the Port Elizabeth Fisheries Compliance office, Dennis Mostert, had testified that when police raided the Oliphantskop farm, 373,456 perlemoen, weighing more than six tons and valued at R5.25m, had been seized.
In the 2014 case involving Huang Zhenyong, 32, and Pan Kekun, 55, Mostert told how the perlemoen was cooked, dried and processed to be illegally exported via Gauteng.
He said legal perlemoen fishing was allowed for people and companies with the proper permits, but was limited to four tons a year in the Port Elizabeth region and six tons in the Jeffreys Bay area.
Killian’s statement detailed a web of illegal activities orchestrated by Blignaut and five others, including Blignaut’s exwife, Marshelle, who pleaded guilty to a string of offences.
Perlemoen poached in the Western Cape was also found on the Oliphantskop farm.
Killian pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 2015 for his involvement in the ring.
Zhenyong and Kekun each received three-year sentences and were deported to China.
Killian, who turned state witness, received a one-year sentence, suspended for a year, as well as correctional services supervision.
Blignaut’s advocate, Alwyn Griebenow, told the court that Blignaut had four previous convictions, including one for contravening the Sea Fishery Act when he was found in possession of excessive amounts of perlemoen in 2001.
“[Blignaut’s] previous offence [for perlemoen possession] was 17 years ago, [therefore] I ask the court to look at the accused as a first-time offender,” Griebenow said.
Blignaut has three adult children from his first marriage to Marshelle and a threemonth-old baby from his second wife, whom he married in December 2016.
Griebenow also detailed Blignaut’s previous failed business ventures, including two nightclubs, a butchery and a pawn shop.
Blignaut’s co-accused, Marshelle, 40, Jacob “Japie” Naumann, 34, Frederick “Frikkie” Nance, 24, Petrus “Pietie” Smith, 31, and Willie Nance, 56, pleaded guilty to charges including racketeering and the illegal trade in perlemoen on August 22.
They were all to be witnesses in the case against Blignaut, who will be sentenced on September 19.
The other five will be sentenced on September 20.