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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...