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The January edition of Noseweek has a good story on the continued reliance by the fisheries department on the sale of confiscated abalone and the dismal state of management at the Fisheries Branch. Check it out at www.noseweek.co.za

The latest issue of Maritime Review Southern Africa (www.maritimesa.co.za) reviews the Minister of Fisheries' performance during 2011. Suffice it to say, it was woeful. Read the latest edition of Maritime SA and the performance review on page 20 on http://maritimesa.co.za/CurrentIssue/tabid/79/Default.aspx

The Business Report (www.iol.co.za) today reports that Smit Amandla, the local subsidiary of the powerful Dutch-based multinational ship-handling group Smit, has served a notice of motion on the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries seeking to interdict it from awarding a R1 billion tender to a consortium led by Sekunjalo. This BLOG has reported extensively on this increasingly problematic and questionable tender. At the heart of the problem is a clear (to all but blinded government officials) conflict of interest where a fishing company is in charge of the fisheries patrol fleet. In a bizarre response to the allegations of a conflict of interest is Sekunjalo's (and one assumes government's) bottom-of the-barrel-scraping defence that - “When they are on patrol the vessels are commanded by government inspectors who are appointed by the department. The crew and the skipper have no idea where the vessel will patrol until they are out at sea and given the GPS co-ordinat...

This is a statement issued by the Democratic Alliance's Deputy Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on 4 December 2011. Reports today indicate that a politically-linked company has been awarded a nearly R1 billion tender by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s department. The tender recipient, Sekunjalo Investments, will be responsible for managing the country’s fishing patrol fleet. The fleet is responsible for research, inspections of fishing trawlers and anti-poaching patrols. I will be submitting an application, under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), to access all documentation relating to Sekunjalo Investments’ bid. Minister Joemat-Pettersson’s department must provide the public with all information relevant to this tender process to explain why Sekunjalo was selected as the preferred bidder. In awarding this tender, the Department is spending almost R1 billion of state funds. The South African peop...

Something fishy in R1bn patrol tender BOBBY JORDAN | 04 December, 2011 See www.timeslive.co.za for the full story. A POLITICALLY connected consortium which owns one of the country's biggest fishing companies has secured a nearly R1-billion tender to police South Africa's fishing industry at sea. Top empowerment firm Sekunjalo Investments heads the consortium. This has triggered concerns that the company is set to become both player and referee in the policing of the country's R2-billion-a-year fishing industry. Sekunjalo owns a majority stake in Premier Fishing, which is active in several fisheries including rock lobster, anchovies, pilchard, hake and squid. A senior industry source said giving a fishing company influence over the country's patrol fleet was a case of "the wolf guarding the hen house".