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2012 has been an awfully traumatic year for the South African fishing industry as it continues to suffer the fool that is Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson. In its 2012 assessment of the Cabinet, the Official Opposition, the DA, had to note that had its assessment system made provision for grades lower than an 'F', Joemat-Pettersson would have qualified for the lowest. She in fact sets the bench-mark for gross incompetence.  2013 could potentially hold much hope. For one we TRUST that the Public Protector will find against Minister Joemat-Pettersson in the three outstanding complaints against her, including the R800 million Sekunjalo Tender debacle and her unlawful interference in the west coast rock lobster TAC matter.  Based on the Public Protector's first report on Joemat-Pettersson's free and immoral use of tax payer's funds on luxurious hotels and first class travel, she should have been removed from her post. But of course that is too much to expect sin...

In its annual assessment of the Cabinet, the Democratic Alliance - South Africa's official opposition party - has rated Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson an unsurprising "F". We have noted that an "F" will not be considered too disastrous in ANC circles as an F is considered a pass of course these days. Hell, you need to get less than 30% to fail a South African test today! So an "F" certainly does not justify the official opposition's call that this useless Minister who spends tax payers money .... well like her boss, the President .... faster than us sods can submit tax returns! Read the full Cabinet Report here . It makes for tragic reading.  

Has the Minister of Fisheries finally got around to appointing a (non-acting) Deputy Director-General of Fisheries? Feike has heard that Ms Greta Apelgren-Narkedien was appointed as the new Deputy Director-General of Fisheries with effect from yesterday (3 December 2012).  Ms Apelgren-Narkedien is currently still listed as the Head of Department of the Northern Cape's Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs.  Although Ms Apelgren-Narkedien's professional qualifications are unknown, what we do know is that she served in the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK). Ms Apelgren-Narkedien was one of the MK Soldiers involved in the infamous of bombing of Durban's Magoo's Bar in 1986 which resulted in the death of women and more than 70 civilian injuries. Ms Apelgren-Narkedien applied for amnesty to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, together with Robert McBride in 1999. Amnesty was granted in April ...

The Business Day Editorial provides this gem of an opinion on our impressively contemptuous, damaging and destructive Minister of Fisheries (and Agriculture). "THE African National Congress (ANC) has repeatedly said there should be no "holy cows" at Mangaung, yet there are clearly subjects — and individuals — that are considered above criticism or official reproach. Apart from the obvious example of President Jacob Zuma and his heavily subsidised domestic arrangements, another is Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson who, if not a holy cow, at least appears to be royal game.  How else could any Cabinet minister have survived the series of bungles she and her department have committed in recent months? The woman is a walking disaster area, not to mention political liability, yet there is no hint from the Presidency that her job may be on the line. Contrast that with the fate of party members who have been silly enough to cross Mr Zu...

ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK ASSESSMENT REVIEW WORKSHOP, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, MONDAY 26 TO FRIDAY 30 NOVEMBER 2012 Over Monday 26 to Friday 30 November an international panel of scientists will be conducting an annual review of the analyses used to provide scientific advice for the management of South African fisheries. This review takes the form of a workshop to be held at the University of Cape Town (Mathematics Building Room M212, 9 am to 5-30 pm daily).  Four leading international fisheries scientists make up the review panel. They are Carmen Fernandez (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, Copenhagen), Mauricio Ortiz (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, Madrid), Andre Punt (University of Washington, USA) and Tony Smith (Chair, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, Australia). Discussions will focus on methods to determine the size and sustainable yields from South Africa’s line fish, south coast ro...

So Mr Lionel Adendorf, departmental spokesperson for the Department of Fisheries ("DAFF"), was quoted in the Friday Argus newspaper (16 November) as stating that the Minister had nothing to do with the decision to abandon the lobster Operational Management Procedure ("OMP") and the recovery plan and the decision to maintain the TAC as unchanged was an internal DAFF decision "based on a variety of factors, including scientific research, economic and ecological considerations as well as employment creation".  Now we can say without doubt that Mr Adendorf is not only being dishonest but is talking absolute nonsense.  Firstly, DAFF (ie the Acting DDG) took a decision recorded in writing on 29 September 2012 to reduce the TAC by 9.72%. Once that decision was taken, it could not be re-taken in terms of South African law. Therefore, even on Mr Adendorf's dishonest and flawed version, the "decision" to change the TAC is unlawful and invalid....

The Environmental Affairs Portfolio Committee today passed an amendment bill to the Biodiversity Act. In supporting the Amendment Bill, Gareth Morgan, the DA Shadow Minister on Environmental Affairs stated the following in Committee: "An excellent new amendment we present in this Bill today is a legal mandate for the issuing authority of licences and permits to defer a decision to issue a permit if the applicant is under investigation for contravening the Biodiversity Act in relation to a similar restricted activity. Take for example the case of Dawie Groenewald who faces over 1700 charges for among other things racketeering, money laundering and dealing in rhino horn. He was after being arrested able to apply for new permits. The magistrate did initially prevent certain activities, but the period expired, and the issuing authority did not have any legal basis to not issue new permits upon application despite the investigation not having been concluded. The amendment in this ...

Feike has been advised that the SAS Africana will now not sail today and in fact may not sail at all. What is almost certain is that the combined arrogance and utter incompetence of DAFF and the Navy will mean that this final pelagic research cruise will have to be abandoned.  The abandonment of the cruise will certainly result in a substantially reduced pilchard TAC for 2013 and this will necessarily result in job losses in pilchard factories and on purse seine vessels. In addition, those that will be lucky enough to keep their jobs should expect lower catching bonuses as a result of a reduced catch limit.  We can only once again blame this debacle on the increasingly destructive and incompetent Minister of Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson. Her failure to act as a responsible Minister and fulfill her legal obligations under the Marine Living Resources Act has meant that repeated offers by the pelagic industry to pay for and conduct the final research cruise with an ...

The Business Day this morning reports that Minister Joemat-Pettersson's response to Feike's allegations  against her that she irresponsibly and unlawfully interfered in the determination of the 2013 lobster TAC is that these are just "lies". She fails to substantiate why these allegations are "lies". Of course the SA public is regularly met with such a standard response by government hacks and ministers when they are found out to have done something wrong. Its "LIES" I tell you! We await a statement alleging racism as their defence too.  If our allegations of irresponsible and unlawful interference are all "lies" then perhaps the Minister should assist with the truth by explaining what the TAC for the WCRL fishery is and why it has not been announced with less than 24 hours to go the start of the season for all fishing zones south of Zone A? The commercial lobster fishing season for Zone A (Port Nolloth) actually commenced on 15...

Feike understands that the SAS Africana may sail tomorrow (14 November 2012) but the vessel has  not been fully repaired. We understand that a replacement fuel pump or filter has not been installed.  We are told that she will sail tomorrow because of the intense pressure on the Navy to get the final 2012 pelagic research cruise back on track. However, our advice is that she will almost certainly have to return to port within a week for further repairs. 

The abalone TAC remains unchanged at 150 tons despite scientific advice that the abalone fishing Zones A to D (Gansbaai to Kleinmond) must be closed to fishing if any recovery in abalone in these zones is to be achieved. The Minister once again ignored scientific advice and kept the TAC unchanged at 150 tons. It is also understood that poaching continues to escalate at alarming levels.

Feike has learnt that the Minister of Fisheries directly interfered in the setting of the lobster TAC by acting contrary to the critical West Coast rock lobster recovery plan.  Although much vaunted in Parliament as part of the department of fisheries' "successes", the implementation of the West Coast rock lobster recovery plan and the lobster Operational Management Procedure ("OMP"), has essentially been tossed out of the window by the Fisheries Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson.  Feike has been informed that the Minister's commitment to the wanton destruction of our fisheries sector continues with apparent gusto.  Durring last week, and subsequent to months of consultations and discussions between the Department's scientists and managers and the West Coast rock lobster industry association (representing  commercial and artisinal fishers), the recreational fishing sector and the "interim relief" sector, it was agreed that a 9.6% cu...

Despite protestations during the November 6 briefing to the Portfolio Committee on Fisheries by Rear Admiral Teuteberg that the damage caused by the apparent minor error of getting sea water into the fuel tanks(!!) would be repaired by Thursday last week (and then by Saturday), it now emerges that the vessel will not be repaired and ready to sail for at least 2 weeks which will almost certainly result in the abandonment of the critical small pelagic year-end cruise. Rear Adm Teuteberg addressing the Portfolio Committee on 6 November 2012 The failure to conduct this research cruise will certainly result in a substantial TAC reduction which will result in job losses in the pilchard and anchovy sectors.  Feike also understands that under the command of the Navy, the SAS Africana has become rat and cockroach infested. Showers on board the vessel no longer work. Naval and DAFF officials barely have a working relationship in place. The Navy requires a number of additional ...

There were no patrol vessels bobbing about in Simonstown Harbour yesterday and one of the patrol vessels was seen stopping an I&J trawler (the Blue-Bell we think) yesterday off Cape Point and undertook a routine boarding and inspection.  That is excellent news.

After having been at sea for only some two weeks, the SAS Africana which was busy with the critical  pelagic research cruise, was towed back to Port with main engine problems last night (4 November). The vessel is still being operated under the command of the Navy.

The Department of Fisheries will provide the Fisheries Portfolio Committee with a briefing on its proposed plans to allocate commercial fishing rights during 2013. The briefing is scheduled for 9am in the Marks Building, M514, Fifth Floor. This BLOG has repeatedly stated that there is simply no way that the Department of Fisheries will be able to allocate fishing rights by December 2013 given that they only woke to this obligation earlier this year. The Department's proposed timetable which will be presented to the Portfolio Committee confirms this. Here is the Department's proposed timetable for the allocation of long term fishing rights in the KZN prawn trawl (20 applications estimated / 7 rights available for allocation), squid (500 / 100), hake handline (250 / 50), oyster (300 / 145), mussel (50 / 7), traditional line fish (2000 / 450), tuna pole (200 / 200) and demersal shark (50 / 23) fisheries. While the timetable and the time allocations particularly c...

The SAS Africana sailed yesterday under the command of the Navy to begin the final small pelagic research cruise for the 2012 season. This research cruise will provide the scientific basis to determine the size of the 2013 pilchard and anchovy quota. The Department of Fisheries also confirmed that by March 2013, the research and compliance vessels will once again be operated by a private service provider.

So a lot has been said and DAFF has thrown its toys out of the cot about the leaking of Ernst & Young’s October 2012 Phase 1 Report into possible irregularities pertaining to the SMIT Amandla Marine vessel management tender.  Before we go any further, it is important to point out two facts. One, the fact that the report's investigative ambit is limited to the Smit tender and did not include the unlawful allocation of the R800 million tender to Sekunjalo is important as it again shows the Minister’s hand and perhaps involvement in the latter. Ultimately, we will have to wait for the Public Protector to pronounce on this matter.  Two, the E&Y Report was supposed to have been published on the department’s website according to the Acting DG of the Department. He made this clear on 2 October. The fact that it failed to appear there was a clear give-away that the report simply did not say what the department and its tainted Minister wanted it to say and in fact had...

It is painfully clear from the recent fiasco involving Smit Amandla Marine and now Ernst & Young that associating yourself with the Department of Fisheries and its tainted Minister is certainly brand destroying. Both the department and its Minister do not give a fig when publishing hugely damaging and defamatory press statements because they ultimately know they are above the law and are completely unaccountable. At the very worse, they will be taken to court and will lose a defamation case and the taxpayers will bleed the costs. And these Mamparas will simply be promoted to another cadre facilitated post in the civil service no doubt with a "golden handshake". And some other economic sector of our damaged and battered economy will be made to suffer these fools.

The Department of Fisheries issued a press statement today after it was again exposed as being guilty of deceiving the public. If we recall, on 1 October the DAFF issued a shocking press statement claiming that the Ernst & Young Forensic Auditors had produced a report confirming, inter alia, corruption by Smit Amandla in the award of vessel management tenders since 2000. The following day, at a press conference where this report was to be handed ceremoniously to our increasingly compromised Minister of Fisheries, the department ducked and dived and reduced the "report" to a "preliminary report" that mentioned some problems. No mention suddenly of corruption!  Then, the full 200 page report found its way to the Democratic Alliance. And when the Department realised this today, they suddenly panicked realising their false claims about corruption against Smit   Amandle would now be exposed.  And indeed they are. Feike has seen the report and the findings s...

On 17 October 2012, Pieter van Dalen, the Deputy Shadow Minister for Fisheries (DA) addressed the Cape Boat and Ski-Boat Club on the state of fisheries management in South Africa. This is his address. "By way of preface, it is worth situating the state of fisheries in South Africa in the broader global context. The world’s fisheries are the quintessential case of the “tragedy of the commons”, whose symptoms include persistent over-fishing and fleet overcapitalisation. This tragedy shows how individually rational agents will use a common resource in a socially irrational way because, when each agent exploits the resource, they ignore the negative externalities that this generates for other agents. The consequence is that the resource is over-utilised in a dramatic way, even though all those involved could change their behaviour (extract less) and leave everyone better off. Such a scenario raises notable political economy challenges in developing country-specific pathways of re...

The first of three reports by the Public Protector finds against both the Minister, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, and her former Chief of Staff. The full article is available on IOL . Here is an excerpt. "The public protector has recommended that Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s former chief of staff must repay R420 000 for booking her boss into a pricey guest house.   And the minister was slammed for displaying a “blank cheque attitude towards public funds” for not querying a booking at the Emperor’s Palace casino in Joburg.  Thuli Madonsela has recommended in her report, seen by The Sunday Independent, that President Jacob Zuma “consider reprimanding” Joemat-Pettersson. She spent five nights at the 28A On Oxford guesthouse in Joburg, where the rate rose from R1 450 to R5 257 a night because of the World Cup. The department booked three rooms to accommodate her children and their nanny."

There can be little doubt that the rushed, gaff-filled and defamatory press statement issued by DAFF on 1 October and its subsequent dishonest backtrack on 2 October 2012 now exposes the Minister and DAFF to a serious defamation law suit by Smit Amandla. The statement issued on 1 October confirmed that an "Ernst & Young forensic report" confirmed that Smit Amandla was essentially found to be guilty of corruption. The opening paragraph of the 1 October statement reveals that, "The Ernest & Young forensic report confirmed substantial evidence of irregular contracts awarded to Smit Amandla Marine (SAM) or different guises thereof since 1995 until 31 March 2012." The statement then proceeds to allege gross violations of various South African tender and procurement rules and laws, which amount to corruption.  Importantly, the statement refers to "the Ernst & Young forensic report".  However, at a press conference on 2 October 2012 to...

The West Cape News reports on the state of the Department of Fisheries and its hopeless Minister of Fisheries. The article reports that "Claims of the “imploding situation” at the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) seem to have reached a new low with a DA MP saying he and Parliamentary Oversight Committee colleagues were deliberately deceived by the department’s officials last Friday." Read the full article here .

The September edition of Noseweek has an article on the terrible twins - the Minister of Fisheries and ANC cadre, Iqbal Surve. The article states that "Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, is eager to favour a fellow ANC multi-millionaire, Dr Iqbal Survé, with a R1-billion tender opening a window on all that’s wrong with the Zuma government. Her appointment and continued survival in government, despite her obvious incompetence and shocking manners, is widely attributed to her having positioned herself as the ultimate Zuma loyalist." Click here for the full article .

The statement below was issued on 25 September 2012 by the Democratic Alliance. A parliamentary visit to Simon’s Town Naval Base on Friday revealed that the state’s marine patrol and research vessels were going nowhere slowly, or so it appeared. But while the fisheries portfolio committee was being briefed by Navy and Fisheries officials, the Algoa sailed away from under our nose.  In a bizarre twist of fate, Smit Amandla has been appointed by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) to take operational control of this research vessel. But this is the multinational company against which Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson claims she has prima facie evidence for corruption. They had held the contract to operate and maintain all state-owned marine patrol vessels for ten years until November last year The contract was controversially handed to politically connected Sekunjalo Consortium and then withdrawn under dubious circumstances.  I have today written to...

It would appear that senior Naval and Fisheries officials deliberately misled and lied to members of the Portfolio Committee of Fisheries during their visit to Simonstown on Friday 21 September 2012.  These officials appear to have deliberately misled and/or lied to the MP's with respect to the following -  That Smit Amandla was re-appointed to take operational control of the Algoa research vessel. It is understood that the Africana will follow suite shortly. It appears that these procedures were put in place some 5 weeks previously. This despite the Fisheries Minister's bluster that she had prima facie evidence that Smit Amandla was involved in corruption and that the matter was being investigated by the SA Police. The Minister's statement is in fact still on the DAFF website ; and The status of the vessels. It is apparent that the officials deliberately painted a false picture of the state of apparent vessel disrepair and deliberately failed to inform the MP...

Feike has been informed that the Department of Environmental Affairs has taken back control of the fisheries research vessel, the Algoa. And the Africana will follow shortly. Both vessels have been removed from the naval registry and are back on the SAMSA civilian vessel registry.  In what is a clear indication of how incompetent and damaging the fisheries minister has been, Environmental Affairs has been able to get the Algoa sea-ready and sailing in about 7 days. The Algoa actually sailed from Simonstown on Friday, 21 September 2012, the day the Fisheries Portfolio Committee visited Simonstown to inspect the patrol and research vessels.  And in a further indictment of the destructive, petulantly childish and personally vindictive behaviour of the fisheries minister, Environmental Affairs got the Algoa sea-ready in a week under the crew and operational leadership of Smit Amandla - the company against whom the fisheries minister has launched a personal vendetta and la...

Environmentalist, Laura Law, wrote on Feike's Facebook page  that she opposed the Western Cape government's decision to permit farmers to kill certain predatory animals (caracals and jackals) in a bid to protect agricultural livestock. Laura holds the view that there are alternatives to the present scheme of permits that authorise farmers to kill a specified number of these predatory animals. Feike offered Laura our BLOG platform to publish her views on the possible alternative methods to the current predator management scheme implemented by the Western Cape government. Here are her views on the subject. We note that these views and opinions do not reflect the views or opinions of Feike. The "Bredell Cull" commenced in July 2011 and came about after DA Minister of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell, allegedly pressured CapeNature into issuing 480 farmers with blanket permits to kill up to ten predators per day over a six month period. T...