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 Daily Maverick has over the past few days since it emerged that Dion George would be removed as the SA Minister of Forestry, Fisheries & Environment published two substantial pieces preferring view points opposing and objecting to his removal. The premise of the objections is that his replacement - Willie Aucamp - is an avid hunter and close to the hunting lobby, drumming up fears that South Africa will somehow adopt a pro-canned hunting policy despite this being contrary to Aucamp's own party's publicly stated policies. If canned hunting is against DA policy and is certainly contrary to SA national ecological policy, then the fears being raised by the Daily Maverick pieces are misplaced in my view. There are some other facts as to why he was fired as the Minister responsible for forestry, FISHERIES & the environment. Dion George was most likely removed as fisheries minister because of his record of ridiculously bad decisions that ARE IN FACT CONTRARY TO D...
SA's fisheries minister, Dr Dion George, admitted on 31 October 2025 that he's predecessor and her staff advising her took such bad decisions in the small pelagic (anchovy & pilchard) sector in 2022 and 2023, that he has to now approach the WC High court to review and set aside ALL decisions taken since March 2022. While he's press statement billed this step as some sort "unprecedented" solution, it sadly is not. It is a repeat of the catastrophic decision-making processes that plagued the 2016 fishing rights allocations in the hake inshore trawl and horse mackerel fisheries. In both fisheries, the Minister sought to self-review her own incredulously bad and unlawful decisions. So unprecedented, this is not . George's failure to finalise the appeal decisions despite some 20 court orders that he do so is also a failure in his leadership given that he conceded these reviews (except for 3) on 3 February 2025 before Judge Mantame. And before that, he insiste...
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