Search for Cape Town hiker called off

Cape Town - The hunt for a missing Muizenberg man, who was thought to have gone hiking on Table Mountain, has been called off after 11 days, the search coordinator said on Monday.

“After extensive search efforts yesterday [Sunday], involving about 50 people including rescue climbers and others, we failed to locate anything,” Brent Jennings, vice-chairperson of the Mountain Club of SA, told News24.

Taro Spies, 25, left his home almost two weeks ago and his car was found on Tafelberg Road by workers the following day.

It was believed that Spies, an active and fit person, had parked his car and gone hiking.

Jennings said several areas around the mountain, including hazardous terrain, were covered during the search, but had yielded nothing.

Search teams and dog units had scoured various parts of Devil’s Peak, the Twelve Apostles, Orange Kloof in Hout Bay and the lower slopes of Vredehoek.

The search first started on May 14.