FISHY BUSINESS
Shaheen Moolla discusses the fishing sector
Its Official: FRAP 2013 is an unlawful farce but what next for the punchdrunk fishing industry? Only days before the May 7 General Elections, the Fisheries Minister announced that the 2013 FRAP was an illegal and indefensible farce and that she would have to “set the process aside” and essentially start again. Only weeks before, the Minister, together with a coterie of the usual backers, was singing the apparent successes of the process, which only they could see.
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had maintained that a legal, fair and legitimate 2013 fishing rights allocation process was simply not possible given the lack of skills and leadership at the Fisheries Branch and the time allocated for the process.
undoubtedly continue to be a major casualty. The Fisheries Department has degenerated into a cesspool of corruption and maladministration. There is very little, if any, fisheries management, compliance, monitoring and administration going on.
But not even I could have imagined the scale of the maladministration, increasingly apparent corruption Not The newly appointed and nepotism that has come Minister of Fisheven I could to define this process and, eries, Mr Senhave imagined the indeed, the broader adzeni Zokwana, scale of the maladminisministration of fisheries certainly has under the “leadership” tration, increasingly apparhis work cut of Desmond Stevens as out for him ent corruption and nepotism the acting Deputy Diif he has any that has come to define this rector-General between real intenprocess and, indeed, the May 2013 and March tions of fixing 2013. the Fisheries broader administration By the time that I penned of this article (9 June 2014), the revelations of apparent corruption, Nedbank accounts into which bribes were paid to secure permits and the ongoing refusal by Stevens and his accomplices to explain how decisions were taken to allocate fishing rights were breathtaking. However, I suspect that by time you read this article, the revelations would have doubled in number with little consequences for those implicated. The “defence” offered by Stevens to the allegations of corruption and maladministration is that whatever he did, he in fact did with Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s blessing and that he has the proof to confirm this. The fall-out is expected to continue while responsible fisheries management will
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MARITIME REVIEW Africa: May/June 2014
Branch and preparing it and the fishing industry for a proper, legitimate and legal series of rights allocations in the next seven years.
fisheries.
Setting aside FRAP 2013 But Minister Zokwana has to first implement Joemat-Pettersson’s announcement that the decisions taken by Stevens during the FRAP 2013 will be set aside. Imple-
mentation will be easier said than done. For one, there are a number of new entrant fishing rights recipients who have now invested in vessels and have established markets and entered into contracts having been told that they were allocated seven-year long fishing rights. Their rights cannot simply be “set-aside”. They will certainly have a right to claim damages and even loss of future anticipated income from the department, particularly in light of the findings recorded in the Harris, Nupen and Molebatsi Report. The Minister will have to offer each and every one of the 596 right holders granted fishing rights on 30 December 2013 a hearing or opportunity to make representations on why their rights should not be set aside. Only thereafter will he be able to approach a Court of law to review and set aside Stevens’ decisions. Only a court of law can set aside FRAP 2013. And until the High Court grants such an order, all fishing rights allocated in terms of FRAP 2013 remain valid (and of course the deeper the legal hole gets for the Department and its Minister).
Re-allocation process According to one of the findings contained in the Harris, Nupen and Molebatsi Report, the Fisheries Department requires at least three years to adequately prepare for an allocation of fishing rights. This of course means that the re-allocation of the 2013 fishing rights can conceivably only be expected to be completed by 2016/2017 at the earliest! Which of course means that the next major fishing rights allocation process, which was scheduled for 2015, will have to be postponed to at least 2020. I believe that if Minister Zokwana is committed to placing the interests of our fishing industry – large and small-scale – and the thousands of jobs it sustains at the forefront of policy and decision-making, he will at least implement the following measures without any further delay – Employ the counsel of a specialist fisheries management advisor to provide frank and brutally honest advice and guidance on fisheries policy, rights allocations and fixing the Fisheries Department. The Minister
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The Minister will have to offer each and every one of the 596 right holders granted fishing rights on 30 December 2013 a hearing or opportunity to make representations on why their rights should not be set aside.