The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The conditional re-opening of the abalone fishery in the coming weeks is a welcome move that will alleviate the hardships of many of the 302 legal abalone fishers who were affected by the decision of the previous Minister of Environmental Affairs to close the fishery on 1 February 2008. However, while the change of mind by government on abalone management should be cause for celebration, many, if not the majority of abalone fishers, are up in arms about plans to prevent fishers from selling their catches to buyers of their choice. Instead, officials from Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) have been attempting to set up a system where all legal rights holders must sell their catches to a single, pre-determined buyer.

The DA is strongly opposed to this proposed arrangement and calls on the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, who is the responsible Minister for fisheries at this time, to immediately put an end to this bizarre plan. Preventing legal rights holders from marketing their individual catches to whom they please limits choice and prevents the fishers from shopping around for the best price available. Forcing the rights holders to sell their catches to one business inevitably means that a middleman will take part of the profits. Abalone rights holders are saying that the Minister is forcing a monopoly on them. A substantial number of legal abalone rights holders are known to already have signed a petition to the Minister expressing their opposition to this plan.

Desmond Stevens, a Director of Stakeholder Engagement at MCM is driving the process of setting up the single buyer system. He was also responsible for setting up the controversial anti-poaching unit made up of MK and Apla military veterans last year. The stakeholder engagement has been selective, focusing mainly on a handful of fishers from the Overberg region who are in support of the proposal. MCM have a poor record of stakeholder engagement at the best of times, and the current plan will serve only to alienate the legal rights holders who are critical to the sustainable management of the abalone resource in the future.

There are no benefits of the single buyer system except for the business lucky enough to be the single buyer. It offers no significant advantage to tracking the international trade in abalone, as the stringent CITES requirements would apply equally whether there are number of marketers selling South African wild abalone overseas or just one marketer.