M&G reporter
Bato Star Fishing formed a development initiative in 1996 with the Mineworkers” Investment Company (MIC) and Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union Investment Group (SIG). Management interest in Bato is held through Intlantzi Ze Afrika while controlling shareholding is held by SIG through the South African Amalgamated Union Fishing.
Through SIG and initially MIC and the investment trusts, Bato has a beneficiary base in excess of three-million South Africans.
Bato Star is actively involved in industry forums, rights holders’ associations, as well as sea management and scientific forums, and this involvement led to managing director Danny Bailey’s participation in the Consultative Advisory Forum for Marine Living Resources.
Bailey places emphasis on the role played by the relationships between people. This is crucial when addressing the question of whether the industry can facilitate the meaningful participation of “poachers”, who are regarded as criminals.
Bato was one of four South African companies to be issued with an experimental quota in the Patagonian tooth fish sector.
Bato, through its joint venture partnership with a Norwegian- based company, contributed to defining the viability of such an initiative.