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The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Senzeni Zokwana, hereby informs the South African public and the traditional line fish sector in particular of that he has taken the final decisions on appeals filed against decisions taken on 30 December 2013 in the traditional line fishery (“the line fishery”). The full record of the Minister’s decisions are appended hereto reflecting  the Minister’s decisions on appeals by existing right holder appellants in traditional line fishing Zones A, B and C and the Minister’s decisions on appeals by new entrant appellants.

Provisional Decision Process & Information Verification

On 8 March 2016, the Minister had published his provisional decisions in accordance with a settlement agreement ordered by the Western Cape High Court under Case Number 2569/2014 (“the Settlement Order”). Between 10 March 2016 and 28 March, members of the South African public were afforded the opportunity to provide comment on these provisional decisions anonymously and confidentially to an independent forensic audit firm appointed by the Minister to oversee this process and verify information filed by appellants.

A total of 127 comments and complaints were receipted, considered and evaluated. Of these, 16 complaints were determined by the appeals advisory team as raising allegations that warranted further investigation by the forensic audit firm, Sizwe, Ntsaluba & Gobodo Inc. Of the 15 investigations undertaken, only 1 investigation yielded evidence of fraud and/or violations of terms of the oath taken by applicants. The appellant concerned had concluded a scheme whereby he had entered into an agreement to sell his vessel and fishing right during 2013 and confirmed an intention to deceive the Department into granting a representative of board letter and subsequent section 21 transfer of fishing right. The appellant concerned has accordingly not been granted a right.

The Minister wishes to thank all persons who participated in this provisional list comment process, which greatly contributed to the legitimacy and fairness of the appeals process.

The Minister’s Final Decisions at a Glance

Of the 567 appeals considered and evaluated, the Minister granted rights to a total of 210 appellants as follows –
·         Zone A: 171 rights. A total of 316 rights have been granted in Zone A.
·         Zone B: 22 rights. A total of 64 rights have been granted in Zone B.
·         Zone C: 17 rights. A total of 45 rights have been granted in Zone C.

Of the 210 rights granted by the Minister,

•      24.18% of the successful existing right holder appellants in Zone A are Black;
•      31,82% of the successful existing right holder appellants in Zone B are Black; and
•      46.67% of the successful existing right holder appellants in Zone C are Black.
•      Of the successful new entrant appellants, 59% are Black.

Of the 425 traditional line fish granted under FRAP 2013 (inclusive of the appeals process), 58,5% or 249 traditional line fish rights have been allocated to Black fishers.
The Minister wishes to emphasise that when evaluating appeals, he had particular regard to, inter alia, the following factors:

Whether the appellant had demonstrated a legally enforceable right of access to a suitable vessel;
The appellant’s compliance record and whether the appellant had been convicted of a serious offence under the MLRA. In this regard, the Minister notes that one appellant (FJ ROODMAN; LNF 130 3159) was refused a right because he had been convicted of abalone poaching and is presently under house arrest; and
In so far as right holder appellants were concerned, their fishing performance in relation to other right holders in their respective fishing zones.

Reserved Decisions & Exemptions

The Minister has reserved his decision on the appeal filed by Mr MS Fortune (LNF 130 4956 – Zone A, Kalk Bay). Mr Fortune is alleged to be have presented a falsified permit to compliance officials. The Minister has instructed his department to immediately institute criminal proceedings against the appellant on the basis of this allegation. The Minister will decide Mr Fortune’s appeal once this matter has been resolved. Mr Fortune’s exemption to fish had lapsed on publication of these decisions and as such he may not continue fishing.

In accordance with the Settlement Order, all exemptions issued authorizing line fishers to fish have now lapsed. Accordingly, exemptions are no longer valid forms of authorisations to fish for traditional line fish.

Small-Scale Fishing Co-operatives & Communities

Pursuant to these decisions, a total of 30 traditional line fish rights are available within the current TAE of 455 fishing rights for allocation to small-scale fishing community co-operatives. Of these 30 rights, 24 are in Zone A and 6 in Zone C.

The Minister however remains committed to ensuring that identified and qualifying small-scale fishing community co-operatives capable of fishing for traditional line fish species will be able to access such quotas on a biologically sustainable and economically viable basis. In order to give practical effect to this commitment, the Department’s officials have been instructed to consider implementing the following mutually inclusive measures:

Firstly, as it is anticipated that small-scale community cooperative fishers will generally utilise smaller boats (usually of 5 crew or less) their effort impact on the fishery will be less than current individual small-scale commercial right holders. In addition, the effort of small-scale community cooperative fishers could be further managed in terms of limiting the number of sea days given that these fishers will have access to a “basket” of resources and not require year-round access to traditional line fish species.
Secondly, the Minister has instructed that non-performing right holders (ie those who failed to nominate vessels in 2013 and those who have not fished in terms of their traditional line fish rights in 2014 and 2015), should have their rights revoked under section 28(4) of the MLRA. This process is envisaged to remove an approximated 95 latent fishing rights.
Thirdly, there is a significant and sizeable “subsistence” linefish exemption fishery comprising some 1900 fishers along the Eastern Cape (Zone B) and KZN (Zone C) coasts who presently fish outside of the current TAE determinations[1]. This boat-based effort will be considered for incorporation into the current effort determinations for the traditional line fishery (Zones B and C).

Issued by The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries