Marianne Merten
The Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) wants the government to address the alleged failure of black empowerment companies to help transform the fishing industry. The call was made as part of the strike by 5 000 Fawu members at 10 West Coast fishing and fish processing companies with black empowerment components.
“The dispute is not just about wages. It’s about promises made to workers,” says Fawu Western Cape secretary William Thomas. “Black empowerment is not happening.”
Fawu also wants councillors, politicians and former MPs involved in the industry to be excluded. The union says the lack of transformation is also reflected in the use of so-called paper quotas by which formerly disadvantaged communities and individuals apply for quotas. These, Thomas says, are then sold off to established big players in the industry. He adds that several union members have been approached to form closed corporations to apply for quotas.
This concern seems to be shared by some of the large fishing companies. Earlier this month it emerged that Sea Harvest and Irvine & Johnson apparently sent a letter of complaint to Marine and Coastal Management over the quota allocation to three front companies supplying other industry players. The letter questions why allocations were made specifying the recipients as new entrants to the market even though they were linked to established companies.
At this stage the government does not plan to intervene to regulate the matter, but is currently redrafting the criteria for quota applications.
Deputy director general of environmental affairs (resource management) Tanya Abrahamse says one of the difficulties is that there is no consensus on what transformation means. The government has an obligation to ensure viable access of new entrants to spread the benefits of the fishing industry to all those who had been denied access in the past. At the same time, fishing is based on a finite resource to be protected.
Most established big fishing companies have over the past few years entered into joint ventures with black empowerment companies, but only Premier Fishing is black controlled. Sekunjalo Company CEO Iqbal Surve says his company has successfully promoted people who had worked at the company for 15 years into key posts. There has also been investment in socio- economic development projects. Last year Premier Fishing withdrew from the bargaining council to offer better wage increases.
In light of its concern over black empowerment, Fawu next month will reconsider its participation in Siphumelele Investment involved at Irvine & Johnson. Thomas said the union’s participation had not been properly authorised as it came during a time of an internal leadership dispute. Instead the union has launched its own empowerment company, the Fawu Fishing Corporation, to work on a commercial basis with established businesses like Oceana. Corporation CEO Wentzel Oaker says the company is a broad-based empowerment initiative to benefit the 15 000 union members in the fishing industry.