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On 19 August 2026, the Western Cape High Court reviewed and set aside the quantum allocation methodology that had been adopted to apportion quota to the holders of fishing rights in the South Coast rock lobster (SCRL) fishery. The matter was brought against the Minister at the time (Barbara Creecy) by Risar Fishing CC.  I had acted as counsel for Risar Fishing in that matter.  The Minister's legal team was immediately notified of what we considered to be the urgent next steps given that the SCRL fishing season commences each and every year on 1 October.  What has become apparent based on communications with representatives of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment is that the Minister and his department literally did nothing for the last 40 days and fully expected that they would instead attempt to unlawfully allocate a portion of the 2026/2027 SCRL total allowable catch to buy themselves more time to be incompetent. What has transpired over the past 48 hou...

The South African Deep Sea Trawl Industry Association ("SADSTIA") has published an incredibly important report that should certainly guide the significant revision of the MLRA, which is now at least a decade over due.  The SADSTIA report correctly hones on the issue of the duration of fishing rights. Fishing right duration and the increasing collapse in the confidence of any fishing allocation process will increasingly deter any meaningful stabilization of the moribund SA fishing industry - let alone spur any growth or significant investment.  What we have seen since the 2016 rights allocation process is a significant erosion in the confidence of these processes & the allocation of rights especially since we have repeatedly seen -  (a) consistent findings of unlawfulness by the high court setting aside hundreds of fishing rights; & (b) the minister repeatedly self-reviewing decisions setting aside wholesale allocations 5/6 years into a rights allocation period....

 The Western Cape High Court on 19 August 2026 set aside Minister Creecy's South Coast rock lobster (SCRL) quantum allocation methodology (QAM), declaring the QAM to be an arbitrary and irrational decision.  The order affects all current right holders in the fishery as their individual allocations have been declared to have been the product of an unlawful process.  The 2026/2027 SCRL season commences on 1 October 2026 and Minister Maynier has to of course decide the season's total allowable catch before that.  The Minister cannot decide next season's TAC allocations to right holders based on the current QAM because to do so would be unlawful. Accordingly, Minister Maynier will have to do the following without delay:  1.     Develop a draft revised QAM based on the judgement; 2.     Issue the proposed draft QAM to all current right holders for comment. An expedited comment period would be justifiable given the fact that the season starts in ju...

 On 19 August 2026, the Western Cape High Court finally ruled in Risar Fishing CC v The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries & Agriculture & Others  that the quantum allocation methodology adopted by Creecy was irrational and arbitrary and thus set it aside.  This effectively meant that nearly every single decision taken by Creecy during the FRAP 2021/2022 has been reviewed and set aside. The financial costs to the department must be staggering as every decision has been aside with costs awarded against the Minister. We would estimate no less than 40 individual reviews have been successfully brought by various fishing companies resulting in the setting aside of hundreds of decisions in the squid, small pelagics, hake, South Coast rock lobster and tuna pole sectors.   And despite repeatedly telling numerous courts how Creecy (and then subsequently Dion George) relied exclusively on the advice of the same core team of departmental legal advisors, none of these advis...

That is correct! South Africa's department for forestry, fisheries and the environment (www.environment.gov.za) will get its third new fisheries minister since South Africa's leading opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, joined the national government after the May 2024 General Elections.  The DA National Leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, has requested that the SA President move the current fisheries minister to the Agriculture Department and appoint the current Western Cape Provincial Minister responsible for Education, David Maynier , to the position of Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.  Having previously served as Minister of Finance in the Western Cape Province, Maynier will understand the importance of the South African fishing industry and its socio-economic contributions to the Western Cape's urban and rural economies and why fixing fisheries and growing it is not only crucial to the Western Cape but South Africa's broader economy, which contin...

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-r...