In very sad news this week, Maritime Review Africa has learnt of the death of deep-water diver Peter Timm, who the magazine recently interviewed as one of our Green Warriors.  Timm was an experienced diver with a great passion for his work, the environment and life itself.

Although the actual details of his death are not known at this time, according to newspaper reports, he was diving with regular diving partner,  Adele Stegen, near Aliwal Shoal in an attempt to recover a piece of equipment that had fallen off a research vessel.  Both he and Stegen died at the scene. Our thoughts are with their families and friends at this sad time.

After a long delay, one of the Western Cape’s biggest alleged perlemoen poaching syndicates is expected to go to trial in mid-August according to the press this week.

The trial has been delayed until now as neither of the two defendants had legal representation.  The two facing charges are among a group of 25 people accused by the State of playing a role in a syndicate that has been operational since 1998.  It is believed that the operation involved R2.07 million worth of perlemoen.

Also in the press this week is the initiative being launched by Breadline Africa in which refurbished shipping containers will be used to set up a pop-up crèche at the V&A Waterfront over the next few weeks.  Tim Smith, director of Breadline Africa wants to use the initiative to create awareness around the effective use of containers in poorer communities, stating that many children in South Africa are unable to access centres that meet even the most basic requirements.

The organisation takes disused shipping containers and recycles them to be used for community purposes.  At present there are approximately 200 across the country.

The V&A project is being run in collaboration with the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation and the crèche will eventually be donated to a crèche in Khayelitsha.