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During August 2014, the Institute for Security Studies published two reports on organised crime - both integrally related to the trade in illegal abalone in the Western Cape (and specifically Hout Bay). And last week Kimon de Greef published his research paper on the illicit abalone trade focussing again on Hout Bay in Cape Town. The ISS papers can be accessed here  (under "publications"). Kimon de Greef's paper can accessed here . All three papers are a must read . The ISS paper by Khalil Goga perhaps best summarises the state of abalone poaching as follows: "Criminal governance in the abalone trade thus takes various intersecting forms. These include the marginalised turning to the informal economy in the wake of lack of opportunity; both abalone wholesalers and gangsters developing a level of power over a region that renders them parallel sources of authority; the corruption and co-opting of state officials; and, arguably, the state’s reliance on the seizu...

On 13 August 2014, the DDG of DAFF, Mortimer Mannya, issued a brief update on the 2013 FRAP and the appeals process.  Essentially, Mannya attempted to explain the absence of decisions pertaining to the appeals lodged against decisions taken by his predecessor on 30 December 2013 pertaining to fishing rights in 8 fishery sectors, including demersal shark, oysters, mussels, tuna pole, KZN prawns, line fish, squid and hake handline.  Mannya made two points: 1. That the SA Commercial Line Fish Association (SACLA) court case currently before the Western Cape High Court prevented the conclusion of the appeals process in the other 7 sectors. This is patently incorrect. The SACLA court case has no bearing whatsoever on the appeals process for any of the 7 remaining sectors. In terms of the Marine Living Resources Act, read with the Fisheries Regulations,  the appeals in these 7 fisheries ought to have been concluded by this stage as the SACLA case and the interi...