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Being the first DA appointed Fisheries Minister, we held out much hope that Dion George would significantly move away from the catestrophic policies and incomptent management that has defined fisheries management in this country for some 15 years now.  ANC fisheries policy since Joemat-Petterssen has been defined by corruption, incompetence, typical redistribution of a contracting quota pie to more and more "fishers" with the consequnce that nearshore fisheries have essentially all collapsed and of the 22 healthy and functioning commercial fisheries we had back in 2005, we are down to 13 at best today. And yet we have 1000's more quota holders!  The DA of course supposedly prides itself on its strategies of "growth", competence and collaboration with industry / fishers to grow the SA economy. Minister's George's leadeership since 3 July 2024 has been a copy-and-paste of the incompetence and dithering that has defined ANC mismanagement of our fisheries si...

On 28 January 2025, Dion George's fisheries department issued a decision to refuse to grant abalone fishing exemptions to 179 historic divers because they had apparently committed multiple serious violations of the MLRA.  Additionally, 83 exemption holders were found to have committed "minor" violations of the MLRA and were instructed to pay "admission of guilt fines" or not have their fishing permits issued. And they were told (dishinonestly) by fisheries staff that the payment of admission of guilt fines would not reflect on their criminal records and these fines "have nothing to do with prosecutors and magistrates"! These are obvious lies that unlawfully coerced many exemption holders to admit to crimes they never committed in order to desperately secure access to their fishing permits so as to earn a living.  The decision of 28 January 2025 was apparently the consequence of a 6-month long investigation into compliance conduct by abalone exemption h...