Fisheries Minister Commits to MAYBE Deciding Abalone Appeals by 31 October 2025

"The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, has indicated that he will endeavour to finalise his decisions on the appeals lodged against the decisions taken by the Deputy Director General: Fisheries Management on exemptions for the 2024/2025 Abalone fishing season, by 31 October 2025.

Minister George has emphasised the importance of concluding the process without delay, as the livelihoods of many fishers, their families and coastal communities depend on timely, fair and lawful decisions in the abalone sector."

This is from a statement issued by the Fisheries Minister on 4 September 2025 regarding appeals filed against a decision by his department to summarily deny 179 abalone divers permits for the 2025 abalone season which ends on 30 September 2025. 

The Fisheries Department had commenced "investigations" into apparent unlawful fishing by divers in November 2023. By December 2024, they had finalised these investigations without ever interviewing or giving any diver a hearing regarding any findings of illegality. 

Then, on 28 January 2025 a decision was taken to summarily deny 179 divers permits to fish and earn a living in violation of their rights to due process. Between April and July 2025, the DDG then proceeded to issue separate decisions (unlawfully as she lacked the authority to do so) refusing individual divers their permits and setting out what the violations were. Every one of the violations we have had sight of are bogus charges demonstrating an inability by officials to understand diving operations and even the ability to read vessel monitoring system (VMS) reports.

Some 140 appeals were filed against these decisions and the Minister has failed the abalone divers and their communities and families by not deciding these appeals well before the end of the 2025 season. 

Dion George's conduct and that of his department is reprehensible. The amount of suffering and pain he has caused these fishing communities is inexcusable. 

And so much for DA governance and excellence. 

The Mindless of Irony of Refusing Small Scale Co-ops Access to Commercial Fishing Methods

On 22 August 2025, Minister Dion George denied a request by small-scale fishing co-operatives to be permitted to use commercial fishing methods (trawling, long lining & purse seining) to harvest fishing rights allocated to the co-operatives. 

Essentially, the small-scale co-ops are saying that fishing rights allocated to the co-ops - such as hake hand line quotas - are of zero value because they cant fish for hakes and small pelagics without access to trawl, long line and purse seine gear.

George is correct to deny the co-ops access to "commercial" fishing methods as it would indeed contradict the legal basis for establishing the small-scale fishing sector and the co-operative system. 

But the decision of course points to 2 fundamental contradictions and policy failures:

The first is that his department has unlawfully insisted on allocating a portion of the squid TAE to co-ops in the Eastern Cape, thus effectively granting them access to the very commercial gear he is denying these co-operatives that predominantly operate in the Western Cape. So George and his department have adopted one set of rules for the Eastern Cape Co-ops and another for the Western Cape. And those Eastern Cape squid co-ops are nothing more than paper quotas and extortionists threatening squid operations and only seeking vast rents to purchase fancy cars. 

The second is that the co-ops are doomed to failure because they were created exclusively for the ANC to buy votes in the Eastern and Western Capes using fisheries resources as a social grant. We have repeatedly stated this. The application by the co-ops and the response from George both unequivocally confirm the failure of the co-op system and also confirm that they exist despite the fact that they are not economically sustainable; they cannot sustainably access nearshore fisheries resources; they are nothing more than a rent-seeking class of random people allocated fishing quotas worth nothing more than a social grant. 

The DA when in opposition correctly opposed the institution of the co-op system for these very reasons. Honestly, I dont see Dion George having the courage and leadership abilities to dismantle this system of patronage and economic failure in fisheries management.