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On 20 March 2013, the then DDG of Fisheries, Greta Apelgren-Narkadien, stated unequivocally that the Africana and the four patrol vessels (Ruth First, Sarah Baartman, Victoria Mxenge & Lilian Ngoyi) would certainly be ready to go sea by the end of April. She confirmed that the vessels are all "80%" ready. On 11 June (ie more than a month after the absolute certain deadline set by DAFF in March for the vessels to be at sea), the department sat straight faced and spun more incredible deceit stating to the fisheries portfolio committee in Parliament that the vessels were ... you guessed it ... still not ready to sail ready! In fact it would appear that almost nothing had been done to these vessels between March and June 2013. They stated on 11 June that - - The Sarah Baartman was now only "50% ready for sea voyages and was expected to be finalised by end of June." What happened to it being 80% ready and confirmed to be ready to sail by the end of April. If ...

On 17 July 2013 at 18h00 the department of fisheries issued an email confirming that the final general fisheries policy for 2013 and 8 sector specific fishing policies had been gazetted.  We have previously stated that the gazetting of these policies within the timetable provided by the fisheries department was not legally practical. We reiterate this view.  The gazetting of the "final policies" is grossly unlawful for the following reasons.  The gazette is illegal and a violation of section 85(2)(b) of the Constitution. Only Cabinet can consider and approve such policy. I am not aware that Cabinet considered and approved these policies. The last Cabinet meeting was on 26 June and these policies were not considered or approved by it according to the Cabinet minutes .  Further, the policies make provision for the allocation of fishing rights to "co-operatives". Section 18 of the MLRA as at today's date does not allow for this, hence this policy ...

Send us the questions you put to the department's helpline and the answers you received and we will post them on our BLOG (confidentially of course!). If nothing else, at least we will be able to track the consistency of the answers given to similar questions.

So the Fisheries Department announced yet another ad hoc after thought on 3 July 2013 -  that it started a helpline with effect from 1 July 2013 to answer queries on the 2013 rights allocation process. The helpline number is 021 4023576. When we called, it was answered by a friendly voice who tried to assist with a couple of our queries. We asked - 1. When will the final policies be gazetted ? Answer: Around the 15th of July but we must phone closer to that date to find out more . 2. When will the draft applications be gazetted?   Answer: Draft application forms will not be gazetted for comment. No comment will be allowed on the application forms once published.  3. When will the proposed application fees and grant of right fees be gazetted for comment?   Answer: There will be no application fees. There will only be grant of right fees but it will not be gazetted for comment first.  4. When will applications for fishing rights be invited?   Answer...

Despite having made promises galore about the gazetting of final fishing policies and the publication of invitations to apply for commercial fishing rights in 8 fishery sectors by 1 July 2013, the continued silence from DAFF and its Minister remains deafening. Week 1 has come and gone. And there is no explanation from Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson about why there have been no gazettes publishing the final fishing policies by 28 June 2013 and why no one was invited to apply for fishing rights on 1 July 2013. Have they realised that their profound incompetence; their refusal to appoint properly qualified non-ANC lapdogs to positions of authority at the Fisheries Branch will result in the non-allocation of more than 1000 fishing quotas worth more than R600 million rand by deadline date? Or will we just get another revised timetable ignorant of legal and due processes? Here is a helpful explanation of how a bill becomes a law - it does not take a few weeks to promulgate an amendment...

Many followers of our BLOG have been asking why we have not published any articles or updates on the farcical long term fishing rights allocation process since the beginning of June. If you recall, our last BLOG on the subject was published on 11 June 2013 . We decided to give the Minister and her department the proverbial "space" to attend to meeting their unrealistic and impractical self-inposed deadlines. Deadlines have - expectedly - come and gone. The department and its Minister continue to operate in a cloud of secrecy. They do no provide any updates on the status of progress with respect to any of the milestones they have themselves identified and they have failed to respond to any of the questions that have been put to them during the draft policy consultation process. So nobody actually knows what is going on with a process that directly affects the rights and interests of more than 1000 quota holders.  So, to this date, nobody knows how important policy mat...