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It is now certain that due to our bungling and incompetent Minister and her fisheries department, South Africa will lose all fisheries patrol and research vessel capabilities this weekend. Another tragic and historic milestone achieved by our government. Come Sunday morning, April 1 2012, South Africa will awake to the first time in history since the regulation of fisheries began in the last century, where we will not have any fisheries patrol and research vessel deployment capabilities. And this despite us having some of the most advanced research and patrol vessels in the world. It is almost incomprehensible that a Minister can effectively collapse a country's entire fisheries management regime and not be held to account for such incompetence and blundering. Will she not be fired? It is now certain that with the termination of the hull and indemnity insurances over the vessels and the handing back of the SAMSA safety certificates, South Africa's oceans are now officially open...

In two separate judgements issued on 28 March and 29 March 2012, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the Transfer of Commercial Fishing Rights Policy of 2009 was valid and rational policy and accordingly rejected the appeals by fishing companies, Foodcorp and Oceana. The judgements effectively confirm the validity of the Transfer Policy and provide important light on the prevailing relevance of transformation and black economic empowerment in the fisheries sector. The judgements also rely extensively on the General Fisheries Policy of 2005 and the Constitutional Court's 2004 pronouncements on transformation in the Bato Star matter. The judgements are extremely important for fishing companies as they continue to invest and purchase fishing quotas through commercial transactions involving the purchase and sale of members' interest and shares in corporations. These transactions will impact on future applications for quotas in 2013, 2015 and eventually in 2020. Fishing companie...

This is a press statement issued today by SMIT Amandla regarding the hand-over of the fisheries patrol and research vessels. It is important to note that the department gave SMIT less than 2 weeks notice to handover the vessels, whereas an orderly and effective handover would have taken some 90 days. Suffice-it-to-say, our vessels face mothballing as we have no trained crew or personnel to take over from SMIT and the vessels will not have any insurance cover from Sunday morning. And we have a Minister who refuses to speak to the public about this catastrophe that she and her incompetent department has created. She clearly does not have any solution other than to bury her head deep in the sand and pretend there is no crisis. PRESS STATEMENT BY SMIT AMANDLA SMIT Amandla Marine (Pty) Ltd’s ship management contract with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DAFF) expires on 31 March 2012. The contract entails the manning, maintenance and management of the State’s fleet o...

Black economic empowerment company, Sekunjalo Consortium, has strongly rejected accusations by the DA that it may have manipulated the share price during the time it was awarded a lucrative government tender. See www.moneyweb.co.za for the full story.

A reader of the Feike blog submitted this interesting little gem. "Come 00h01 on April 1st, what poor sole will be left trying to save face for Tannie Tina? With less than a week to go (Ed: Actually 3 days now) until the return of research and patrol boats to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries, there is still no word on just how the SA Navy will ensure a “seamless” fisheries research and patrol service, as promised by our Minister (ed: The Department refuses to comment as their heads are too deep in the sand). Fisheries operational staff tip-toeing the Foreshore corridors themselves have no clarity on what “the plan” is. All we know for sure is that come midnight on Saturday, we will have our hands full trying to come to terms with the effective management of assets worth more than R1 billion, with mounting public pressure to deliver on Tannie Tina’s promises to the taxpayer. Oh, if only a boat were like a tractor, this would all be very straightforward. We...

It has been reported today by Die Burger (www.dieburger.com) that the storm over the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ suspect R800m tender – subsequently withdrawn due to irregularities – has reached the JSE, which has been asked to investigate possible insider trading. The share price of Sekunjalo Investments shot up from 40c to 79c per share shortly before the tender announcement. The price dropped significantly after Smit Amandla Marine started litigation in December 2011 to stop the awarding of the contract to Sekunjalo. The DA's Pieter van Dalen said the fact that Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson officially declared that Sekunjalo was 'an innocent party' during a media briefing on 21 March 2012 was suspect in itself. The party referred the matter to the JSE, which in turn indicated that the investigation would be referred to the relevant directorate if any abuse was found. Sekunjalo chief executive, Khalid Abdulla, denied any irregularities and asked ...

You may recall that on 17 January 2012, the Minister of Fisheries was frothing at the mouth trying to convince the fishing industry that her department was able to get itself ready and allocate commercial fishing rights come next year. If we recall further, Feike had directly questioned the department's ability to timeously allocate commercial fishing rights across some 8 commercial fishery sectors by 2013. At the time, Feike issued a stern response noting 5 reasons why the Minister and her department could not be trusted to ensure a timeous and sustainable quota allocations process (See http://feikemanagement.blogspot.com/2012/01/daff-says-there-is-enough-time-for.html). Well, now we add reasons 6 and 7. 6. The Minister now admits that her totally dysfunctional and possibly corrupt department cannot even get its act together to issue a single tender to protect and manage our extremely valuable commercial fisheries. And instead of committing skills, money and other resources to...

With six days left before the end of March 2012, our Fisheries Minister continues to bury her head in the sand and not tell South Africa what will happen on 1 April 2012.

This Cartoon appeared in the Cape Times on 22 March 2012. We think it most apt!

This press statement was issued by the Democratic Alliance: DA SHADOW DEPUTY MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES, PIETER VAN DALEN MP Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson yesterday announced that she will be instituting an independent inquiry into the procurement processes and procedures at the Fisheries branch of her department. Given that the move is an acknowledgement of alleged irregular processes, the DA welcomes the initiative. As the minister is politically accountable for the department, the announcement essentially constitutes an admission of guilt. The DA is encouraged by the Minister's humility. In order for the inquiry to be credible, however, its legitimacy should be secured in the following manner: · The minister should appoint an opposition member of parliament, preferably myself, to serve on the committee. This act of good faith is a strong signalling device that the minister takes the investigation seriously. It has also served the DA well in simil...

Feike backs the fisheries department's interventions yesterday in Hout Bay and we deplore the unlawful attacks on members of the Special Investigations Unit who attempted to arrest abalone poachers. We have recently wrote about how Hout Bay harbour has become a thoroughfare for illegal goods including the free passage of illegally harvested lobsters and abalone. Feike has been passing on information we receive about the landing of illegal abalone and lobsters in Hout Bay harbour, and particularly at the repair jetty, to the fisheries department. The action of fisheries control officers to stamp out this illegal trade must be supported. The conduct of certain elements of the Hangberg community to "protect" poachers must be condemned.

The Fisheries Minister called a press conference today (Human Rights Day) to announce that she is instituting a committee of inquiry into the procurement procedures and processes at the Fisheries Branch. The Minister admits that the Fisheries Branch is responsible for threatening the continued management of our fisheries resources and failing to properly allocate a critical tender worth some R800 million. She states, without apology or remorse, that the fisheries branch under her watch is guilty of employing "flawed processes" and it was her department's "processes and procedures that failed"! She is more concerned with Sekunjalo's reputation that has apparently been "tainted" rather than show any concern that her department cannot be trusted with the nation's fisheries resources. Instead of taking the South African public and fishing industry into her confidence and explaining how she will ensure that come 1 April 2012, our fish stocks will be...

Sekunjalo today attempted to muzzle Feike by issuing us with a "lawyers letter" demanding that we stop publishing any apparently defamatory content against the "Sekunjalo Group of Companies" and Iqbal Surve. Feike has of course rejected the demand out of hand. In response to Sekunjalo's letter of demand, Feike points out that the awarding of the R800 million tender – (a) is currently the subject of an investigation by the Public Protector (and which has been widely reported on in various media); (b) is currently being considered for investigation by the Competition Commission (and again is widely reported on in the media); (c) was found to be seriously flawed by an independent forensic audit (which again was widely reported on in the media); (d) has been widely condemned with numerous adverse aspersions cast on Sekunjalo's conduct by an array of media (including the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian, Politics Web, the Independent Group and Business R...

A number of media have been reporting that the Minister of Fisheries has confirmed that she is currently engaging with the Minister of Defence to conclude an agreement whereby the South African Navy will step into the shoes of Smit Amandla and take over the management and maintenance of our fisheries patrol and research vessel fleet by 31 March 2012. Feike had suggested this as the preferred option (the other was to extend the Smit Amandla contract beyond 31 March 2012) in a BLOG article back in February (see http://feikemanagement.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-now-that-sekunjalo-tender-bonanza.html) On Sunday, the fisheries patrol vessel, Ruth First, coincidentally took part in the annual Naval Festival in Simonstown. The benefits of using our Navy to operate our fisheries patrol and research vessels are numerous, particularly if our naval officers are also appointed as fishery control officers with the powers to board, inspect and arrest, regardless of whether they are on board a researc...

The Business Report (www.businessreport.co.za) reports today that the Director-General of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) would "like to lay charges of corruption against Smit Pentow Marine" which is the predecessor of Smit Amandla. How exactly he intends to do this in law considering that there is no such legal entity called Smit Pentow Marine is beyond us but of course the law is not necessarily relevant to our esteemed civil servants and politicians. The Minister has alleged that she believes that the 2005 extension of the vessel management and maintenance tender to Smit Pentow Marine was somehow corruptly concluded. This serious allegation - effectively made against the current Deputy Director General of Oceans and Coasts in the Department of Environmental Affairs, Monde Mayekiso, and his former boss, Pamela Yako (who we understand left the department in late 2010 after being on paid suspended leave after she was accused of pilfering hundreds ...

On 15 March 2012, the Fisheries Minister published an opinion piece in the Cape Times in which she seeks to explain and justify her stated intention to move the "fisheries department" which has historically been based in the Western Cape to Pretoria. She essentially claims that the Fisheries Branch has operated as an "island from the main body" thus creating duplication in job functions. She furthermore baldly states that there is apparent mismanagement and corruption (without providing any proof and without even the shame of admitting such under her watch!) that could be routed out if the fisheries department was based in Pretoria as all other government departments are headquartered there. We do of course note that none of the government departments based in Pretoria are afflicted by corruption and maladministration. The Minister proceeds to justify her recent blundering statements by stating two "facts". Fact one is that there are duplicated roles and f...

This statement was issued today by the Democratic Alliance (www.da.org.za). DA welcomes Minister’s about-turn on Fisheries move to Pretoria Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson has done an about-turn on the relocation of the Fisheries branch of her Department from the coast to Pretoria. The Minister has assured Parliament’s fisheries committee that there will be no total move of the Marine Coastal Management unit of her Department from the Western Cape to Pretoria. This follows pressure from the Democratic Alliance (DA) for the Minister to reverse the nonsensical decision to move coastal management inland. Only a portion of staff comprising Human Resources and Legal Services will be located in Pretoria, with the majority of the operation remaining on the coast where it needs to be in order to manage South African marine resources. While the Minister’s about-turn is welcome, the need still exists for some specialised legal services to remain at the current premises in the Western Cape. Th...

This is an open letter in response to what can only be described as a desperate, threatening and evasive diatribe issued by Sekunjalo and its Cherie Hendricks to questions which Feike published on this BLOG and which were published in the Business Report today (www.businessreport.co.za). Instead of answering any of the questions put to her, Hendricks threatens to sue Feike for "defamation", calls the Business Report the spokesperson for Smit Amandla and attempts to attack Feike's credibility by falsely stating that its Managing Director, Shaheen Moolla, was/is being investigated by the Serious Economic Offences Unit of the SAPs (Feike is in fact working with SAPs and the Fisheries department's special investigations unit to arrest a known conman and fraudster, Yusuf Achmat). To really cap it all, Hendricks concludes that all of the negative publicity against her employer, Sekunjalo, can only be ascribed to the fact that it is a "black company". She farcicall...

The February 2012 edition of Maritime Review has been published. Feike's Shaheen Moolla provides a "Foreward to 2012", predicting what the fishing industry can expect this coming year. Check out the online version at http://maritimesa.co.za/CurrentIssue/tabid/79/Default.aspx Shaheen's article is on page 32.

The Public Protector has confirmed that her office will investigate the circumstance pertaining to the awarding of the R800 million vessel management and maintenance contract to Sekunjalo in November 2011. Feike understands that the Minister and her staff are in a desperate bid to convince the Public Protector that there is nothing to investigate as the tender has been withdrawn or Sekunjalo has withdrawn from the tender. This issue remains unclear and itself warrants scrutiny. It is our view that even if the tender to Sekunjalo has been withdrawn or canceled, the fact is the tender WAS awarded and it was only because of the vociferous opposition that was launched by civil society and the DA, coupled with litigation launched by the losing incumbent - Smit Marine - against such a dubious allocation that it was withdrawn. Feike has always maintained that the Minister and her staff have a lot to answer for and the Public Protector has a Constitutional obligation to expose any maladministr...

The Fisheries Department has issued a red tide warning confirming that certain shell fish north of Cape Columbine are not safe to consume. The affected shell fish to be avoided at this stage are mussels, oysters, clams and any other filter-feeding shellfish. DAFF has confirmed that rock lobster remain safe for consumption. Red tides are caused by a mass proliferation of phytoplankton and can essentially be various shades of orange, yellow, purple or brown depending on the type of phytoplankton, densities and even the sun. Visit http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/envfacts/redtides/ for a very informative piece on red-tides and the dangers it poses to human beings consuming affected fish.

It's not only the fishing industry being subjected to the incompetence of the Fisheries Minister and her inept officials, but farmers too! Our Agriculture & Fisheries Minister, responsible for two critical food security sectors, is hell-bent on destroying both sectors. In a recent BLOG article on www.farmersweekly.co.za the author bemoans the parlous state of the farming sector. Here is an extract of his article: Recent statistics showed that the sector shrank every quarter of last year. Employment (on a like-for-like basis) in commercial agriculture declined from 764 000 jobs three years ago to 630 000 jobs in the last quarter. Agricultural output – or services and products generated by the sector – declined by 0,4% for 2011. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is rudderless, with its three main actors reportedly not seeing eye to eye. The department is in a state of limbo. And this is reflected in the state of agriculture. Nothing is happening. Rather, the m...

The lead editorial in the Cape Times this morning perhaps encapsulates just how surreal and farcical the Fisheries Minister's suggestion to move the Fisheries Branch to Pretoria is. The editorial reminds us of a story dating back to the 1980's of a meeting between the apartheid government and Zambia's Cabinet, where Zambia's Prime Minister introduced his Minister of the Navy to South Africa's PM, BJ Vorster. Vorster interjected asking why does Zambia have a Minister of the Navy when it's a land-locked country. Zambia's Kaunda retorted by asking why does apartheid South Africa have a Minister of Justice! When a Minister in a Cabinet so plainly becomes the butt of such comedic errors one would hope she would have the decency to resign and retire to her holiday home in Sweden that she reminds us about.

The National Fisheries Minister was right! Feike can now exclusively expose that the Democratic Alliance - the governing party in the Western Cape and South Africa's official opposition - has been found to have placed a sophisticated signaling device on the roof of Foretrust Building (the home of the Fisheries Branch in Cape Town) which controlled the swimming patterns of all fish in South Africa's EEZ. The DA flatly denies this. We understand from secret sources that this device might have been developed by the late Libyan leader, Gaddaffi (who mistakenly switched it off one night and that is what led to the uprising in his country). The device essentially convinces the fish that they must stay in waters off the Western Cape province even though the waters are terribly cold (try dipping your toe in the water at Clifton) and as the Minister and all other people know, the waters off Durban are just so much more balmy and so warm (even in June). The Minister was therefore quite c...

Timeslive reports this morning that our foolish Fisheries Minister remains convinced that by moving the fisheries branch to Pretoria she will improve fisheries management! She is quoted this morning as saying "Fish do not swim only in Western Cape. There are fishing stocks in Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal." Hey Minister, we know that! But clearly what you and all those clever advisers around you don't know is that not every fish and "fishing stock" can be commercially harvested! And there are two obvious reasons. One, the commercial value of any species is determined by the existence of a market. I know BMW communists like the fisheries Minister don't really care about the "market" 'cause in lala land it does not really matter, but in real life, no market means no value means poverty. Second, the "fish stock" needs to be sufficiently large and healthy to support a commercial fishery. Now, if the Minister has identifie...

Feike has been provided with copies of a number of invoices and statements (particularly in the abalone sector) issued by the fisheries department to quota holders for levies that are supposedly due and payable. On studying these invoices and statements, it is apparent that the invoices have only been raised after requests from right holders and that these invoices are effectively "backdated" as they were not issued when allegedly raised. Further, and with respect to abalone, we have noticed that the rate at which the levy is charged varies from R25/kg to R31,24/kg, which is a violation of the September 2010 Levies Notice - the most recent levy notice. Further, the invoices and statements charge a "finance charge". It is unclear under what legal authority such a charge is levied when neither the department nor the Marine Living Resources Fund (MLRF) are known to be registered as credit or finance providers under the National Credit Act, 2005. Further, the process of...

Over the past few months the Department of Fisheries has inexplicably and rapidly dumped an historic and justifiable policy of not getting involved in commercial disputes between quota holders and members/shareholders of quota holders. The reasoning behind this long-standing policy is simple. Firstly, and most pertinently, the department lacks the legal jurisdiction to involve itself as a type of self-appointed arbiter of commercial law disputes. Departmental officials simply have no authority under any South African law to involve themselves in and to decide such disputes. Secondly, the department's officials are simply not skilled in commercial litigation and commercial law to intervene and understand such inter partes disputes. The proof of this is in the various disputes departmental officials have elected to involve themselves in recently and hold one or more parties ransom to the demands of others in utter violation of South African law. Thirdly, to allow officials to become ...

The Minister of Fisheries yesterday flatly denied that the Western Cape accounts for some 80% of commercial fish landings and activity in the country. Her motivation for the unsubstantiated denial is based on her sudden desire to move the administration of fisheries from Cape Town to Pretoria. The depth of her (and those of her advisers and senior officials) ignorance and lack of knowledge is extremely profound. According to the most recent FAO data on SA fish landings by region /area (and this will be data supplied by her very own department!), the Western Cape in fact accounts for no less than 95.7% of all commercial fish landings (see FAO data table below). We do admit that since 2004/2005 there have been significant migrations of pilchards (for example) further east and the expansion of the squid fishery which is now largely based in the Eastern Cape. This would have contributed to a shift in fisheries economic activity to regions such as Port Elizabeth. This fact is supported by ...

Our posting below has a elicited some of the most hilarious commentary which has not been kind to our foolish Minister of Fisheries. One of the best responses has come from a leading international fisheries scientist who prefers that his name not be published. He states: "My advice in this matter to your Minister (care of Mark Twain): Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt". A former fisheries minister states: "Normally such ministerial statement would be something concocted by Evita se Perron or other diabolically funny comedian in order to ridicule and offend someone. And we're dealing with a reality show! Very hard to take in. Is there NOBODY around the poor witless minister who can protect her against herself?" Another comment received from a Southern African journalist: "Waiting in anticipation for the announcement of a tender for FISH WHISPERERS to convince the fish species to relocate and distribu...

The Fisheries Minister today issued a statement in response to the statement issued by the DA yesterday about the proposed relocation of the fisheries branch to Pretoria. In defending her proposal to move the fisheries branch to Pretoria, the Minister states that - "Van Dalen's (DA Shadow Deputy Minister for Fisheries) claim that 80 percent of commercial fishing activity took place in the coastal region of the Western Cape was both untrue and unsustainable. "Yes, historically the previous government concentrated commercial fishing in the Western Cape [and] created this artificial strength," she said. In the process, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape were under-developed and the Northern Cape completely ignored. If the playing field was levelled and fisheries spread across the country, the Western Cape would represent far less than 80 percent of commercial farming. It was also important to note that the fishing stocks were depleted in the Western Cape and resources w...