The Fisheries Minister's Small Pelagic Review Application

Following steadfastly in the shoes of the ruinous ANC Minister of Fisheries, the DA's latest fisheries Minister, Willie Aucamp, has filed a self-review application in the small pelagic fishery 5 months after Dion George first said he would do so. 

The self-review application seeks to farcically turn the fishing rights allocation clock in this fishery all the way back to January 2022. It effectively seeks to pretend that - 

1.    fishing rights were never allocated to some 160 companies that target pilchards and anchovies;

2.    dozens of rights were allocated to new entrant applicants who today are no longer "new entrants" and these businesses have over the past 4 years invested; employed; have incurred long term loans and debt BASED ON THE FACT THAT RIGHTS were allocated to them for 15 years in 2022.

It is truly incomprehensible how self-defeating this DA-led fisheries ministry is. 

We will be advising our clients on how best to approach this self-review application. In particular, we have a dozen clients who have already succeeded in reviewing Minister Creecy's December 2023 decisions and this self-review cannot again review those decisions. Those remitted matters needed to be decided in terms of the respective court orders granted by the Western Cape high court back in February 2025 and in July 2025 (Jaffas Bay Fishing CC) and on 4 November 2025 (Atlantic Choice Trading & Imperial Crown). 

You are welcome to contact me directly via email at smoolla@feike.co.za should you require advice on how best to address the self-review application. 

It does really appear as if the DA is committed to continuing the ANC tradition and legacy of destroying our fisheries sector. 

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