The transfer of part of South Africa’s fisheries to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department has not included the lucrative areas of conservation vessels and marine conservation legislation, sparking outrage in the department and among stakeholders.
Academics, conservationists and fishing interests have written to President Jacob Zuma deploring the restructuring, saying it will weaken the country’s fishing industry. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), a Cosatu affiliate, has also objected strongly.
Fisheries was effectively split last week when Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe signed a proclamation transferring most of the functions of the Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) unit, which fell under the Department of Environmental Affairs, to agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
But environmental management of the oceans will still fall under Buyelwa Sonjica, the minister of water and environmental affairs.
The proclamation was signed when Zuma was out of the country.
The split is understood to have been preceded by intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by environmental affairs officials. Fishing and aquaculture licences are a lucrative and powerful resource, and environmental affairs will continue to control conservation vessels, which carry a large budget.
Against this backdrop, MCM staff have written to Zuma, opposition politicians and journalists asking for former MCM head Monde Mayekiso to be investigated over alleged mismanagement, nepotism and corruption involving hundreds of millions of rands.
The Mail & Guardian understands that Agriculture Minister Tina JoematPettersson’s officials have already held informal discussions with the Hawks about a possible probe of the MCM.
Gareth Morgan, the Democratic Alliance environment spokesperson, said: “The turf war between officials and staff inside this branch of the department of environmental affairs is seriously compromising its ability to manage fisheries in South Africa.”
He said the accusations against Mayekiso, which were not new, were serious and required further investigation.
MCM staff wrote that “powerful politicians in the ruling party” are lobbying on Mayekiso’s behalf. In its letter to Zuma Nehawu said it believed Mayekiso, environmental director general Nosipho Jezile-Ngcaba and acting MCM head Razeena Omar are misleading Sonjica, Joemat-Pettersson and officials of the presidency and the public service department.
“The only thing this proclamation — will ensure is the creation and strengthening of fiefdoms for certain individual officials, as it seems that what is driving this process currently is opposed to what is in the best interest of our country and the management of its natural resources,” Nehawu writes.
Marine and coastal management sources said a “scared” Mayekiso was likely to face an investigation soon. A staff member said that even though he had moved to another deputy director general’s position in environmental affairs, his shadow still loomed large over MCM.
Mayekiso said he would welcome a forensic investigation, as he had nothing to hide. He strongly denied all allegations against him. He said he had never campaigned “for anything” and that allegations that he had lobbied against the transfer of MCM to the fisheries department were totally unfounded.
In their email staff accuse Mayekiso of allocating a large share of R300-million in funds intended for the Marine Aquaculture Programme (MAP) to a Hermanus aquaculture project not listed among the top four projects selected for the MAP.
“All energy, effort and resources of MAP are being pumped into the Hermanus project, at the expense of development of the other pilots,” the email reads.
“The bulk of the R300-million is also being used to develop the infrastructure of the Hermanus project. It is not clear how much, if any, of the funds have been used on the other pilot projects.”
Staff allege Mayekiso and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Noma-india Mfeketo met the Hermanus company. Both denied any links with the company and declined to speak about their relationship, saying it was private.
Staff also allege that the department awarded a R9,5-million contract for measuring fishing rights performance to the Resolve Group while Mayekiso’s son was a director of the group.
The Environmental Affairs Department said the staff allegations were unsubstantiated. On allegations that Mayekiso was too closely involved in driving aquaculture, spokesperson Albi Modise said aquaculture was a government priority and Mayekiso had to take a keen interest.
Modise said the selection of Hermanus was informed by the fact that it lies at the centre of communities affected by the abalone moratorium.
Mayekiso referred questions about the awarding of tenders to the Resolve Group back to the department, saying he was not intimately involved in tender processes.
In this article it was initially incorrectly reported that the transfer of part of South Africa’s fisheries to Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department did not include fishing permits. The transfer included fishing permits, but excluded the Coastal Management Act as well as the operation of conservation vessels. This has been recitified.