Barry Streek
The government has launched a campaign to open up the fishing industry worth R2,5-billion a year to small-scale and subsistence fishers. The campaign also includes provision for poverty alleviation so, unlike commercial fishermen, those who fish for food security purposes don’t have to apply for fishing quotas.
The announcement follows the expiry of existing fishing quotas at the end of the year and no extensions are allowed.
Until noon on September 13 27 information stations, staffed by 60 people, will operate along the coast from Richard’s Bay in KwaZulu-Natal to Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape to help quota applicants.
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed Valli Moosa says his department “supports the establishment of micro and small and medium enterprises which is closely linked to transformation and by the same token, the department will also move away from unviable allocations of fishing rights so as not to encourage ‘paper quota’ rights holders”.
While commercial companies will have to pay a non-refundable fee of R6000 for their permit applications instead of the current R100, micro-enterprises will pay only R500 and subsistence fishers will be able to apply for licences in the same way as recreational fishers, but they will be allowed to catch more than the limits imposed on people who fish for sport.
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism deputy director general, Horst Kleinschmidt, who heads the marine and coastal management division, says the government’s intention is “to allocate rights to deserving applicants and to do it openly and fairly. I have the right, as the minister’s delegate, to allocate 25% of the total allowable catch of every species to previously disadvantaged fishers.”
New applications must be made on 28-page forms that include questions about the ownership of the applications and their compliance with labour and employment equity legislation. This provision applies to all licence categories except subsistence and sport fishers.
Moosa says the new R6000 fee for commercial permits is aimed at eliminating “skulduggery” in the industry. He says the old fee had not been revised for many years and “it is hoped that the new fee will discourage the many opportunistic applications received in the past”.
The current fishing arrangement has loopholes, making it vulnerable to unscrupulous fishers. “We know of a number of cases where applicants sold their rights immediately on receipt thereof to another fishing company. This practice had negative effects on transformation, economic investment and stability in the industry.”
A verification unit has been established. The 18-person unit, which as an oversight body will receive all applications, will be administered by Deloite & Touche, in partnership with Sithole AB&T.
Commercial permits will be valid for four years instead of one and in the case of fish-processing plants and mariculture, the permits will be for 15 years. Perlemoen (abalone) permits will be valid for only two years because of instability of stock.
Moosa says plans to curtail poaching in South African waters are far advanced and his department has established a range of poverty relief measures. Its capacity to ensure compliance is being improved and it is in the process of buying five patrol vessels four to patrol inshore and one with long-distance capabilities.
The campaign is explained in detail at www.environment.gov.za/mcm or contact Tel: 0881227943 for more information.