Rehana Rossouw
ALLEGATIONS of corruption and nepotism in the allocation of fishing quotas will be investigated by the Public Protector, Advocate Selby Baqwa, following a request from the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Dawie de Villiers.
The investigation follows mounting protests from fishing communities unhappy with the way quotas are allocated. Last month, fishermen gathered on a Cape beach and threatened to illegally catch crayfish, cook and eat them in protest. A tense stand-off with the police ended after lengthy negotiations.
They claim the Quota Board is corrupt, comprises members with interests in fishing companies and allocated quotas to people not entitled to receive them.
But some fishermen are not prepared to cooperate with Baqwa’s investigation. The Informal Fishing Community, which represents hundreds of black and small-scale fishermen, intends witholding information they have gathered about the Quota Board.
Earlier this month, they were promised a parliamentary hearing into the matter by the Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs and Tourism which was scheduled for Friday and Monday. The hearing has now been postponed to mid-May.
“We have not yet been formally notified that the hearings are postponed,” said Informal Fishing Community chairman Andy Johnstone. “But we are prepared to wait for the public hearings, we believe the parliamentary committee is our lifeline.”
De Villier’s spokesman, Peter Pullen, said the fishermen’s reluctance to cooperate with Baqwa put the ministry in a difficult position. Without their information, there would be little for the Public Protector to investigate.
“We have made repeated requests since December last year for people to come forward with information pointing to irregularities. The minister is quite happy to receive it and pass it on to the Public Protector,” Pullen said.
De Villiers said he would not hesitate to take the necessary action should any irregularities be substantiated.
Johnstone said fishermen from as far afield as Lamberts Bay and the Eastern Cape had been prepared to attend the parliamentary committee hearings. “We were going to bring them pieces of a puzzle to fit together,” he said.
“We would have told the committee how the quota system evolved historically, how blacks were denied a piece of the country’s national resource for no other reason but the colour of their skins.”
Johnstone claimed he had evidence of corruption in the current allocation of quotas, which he was only prepared to divulge at the hearings. He would indicate how big business had co-opted smaller-scale fishermen and businesses to expand their financial gains.
“I know of a company that got an allocation of 15 ton of perlemoen without applying for a quota. Why was that done? I know of three members of the Quota Board who have interests in companies which have quotas.
“We also know of a person who has a quota to export fish, but is not a South African citizen. Another Cape Town school principal has a quota even though his partner is a Namibian.
“We also have information about massive international smuggling rings which move tons of perlemoen out of South Africa every year.”
Johnstone said his organisation hoped that the public hearings would finally pave the way for all South Africans to participate freely in the fishing industry with no fear of corruption.