Monday, September 9, 2019

FISHING CO-OPERATIVES: THE REPLICATION OF FAILURE AND STRIFE TO CONTINUE

In the same week that Cabinet had decided to unlawfully "extend" the validity period of commercial fishing by at least 12 months, the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Barbara Creecy, affirmed her continued support for the ongoing allocation of fishing rights to fishing co-operatives that have to date all failed. 

Feike has written extensively about the extent and history of fishing co-operative failures in South Africa; how they have contributed to and fuelled community conflict, resource destruction (what more evidence than the complete collapse of lobster is required); and how they fail to contribute to any form of coastal social or economic growth. Poverty, conflict and unemployment in all coastal villages that have been historically associated with high value nearshore fisheries have increased in the last decade. Poaching has increased massively and we have seen the collapse of abalone and lobster resources over the same period. 

Every fishing co-operative pilot project has failed. EVERYONE. And now the allocation of co-operative fishing rights in the Northern Cape has again confirmed why co-operatives should never be allocated fishing rights. 

But we are so irrationally and ideologically tied to this system, that (like with the NHI, land reform, and every other policy adopted by this government in recent times), evidence-based decision-making is no longer an option or even a consideration. So we will forge ahead and force entire communities into sanctioned conflict, beholden to a co-operative run by hand-picked cadres who sell the "community" lobster to buyers prepared to hand out the highest back-handers to the "decision-makers". The "community" is left to suck on the idiomatic hind-tit.

Essentially, the very creation of "lists" of members to be a part of these "community co-operatives" involves a corrupt and highly contested series of processes, similar to what we see with the infamous municipal "housing lists" or land redistribution processes.  

We should abandon this failed socialist policy of allocating fishing rights to "co-operatives" and undefinable "communities" as if individuals exercising their individual liberties and rights in a market economy cannot decide for themselves how best to sustainably utilise a public resource through a verifiable and accountable regulatory process. (I am sure that in another 5 years' time we will be told how due to "unforeseen circumstances" and "various challenges", every one of these co-operatives has collapsed and unable to account for the millions of rands in fish harvested and sold.)



CABINET'S UNLAWFUL "EXTENSION" OF FISHING RIGHTS

On 8 December 2019, the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries announced that "Cabinet took a decision on Wednesday, 4 September 2019, to extend the timeframes for dealing with the fishing rights in twelve commercial fishing sectors which will expire on 31 December 2020."

The statement further recorded that:

"The twelve sectors that are due for allocation in terms of Section 18 of the Marine Living Resources Act, 1998 are: KZN Prawn Trawl; Demersal Shark; Tune-Pole Line; Hake Handline; Line Fish; White Mussels; Oysters; Squid; Small Pelagics (Pilchard and Anchovy); Hake Deepsea Trawl; Hake Longline; and South Coast Rock Lobster.

...

The FRAP process will therefore be extended until 31 December 2021.  During this time, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) will conduct socio-economic impact analysis studies on the General Policy on the Allocation of Commercial Fishing Rights, as well as the 12 Sector-specific polices."
We have stated on this BLOG and on our Twitter handle previously that a Minister (or Cabinet for that matter) cannot decide to extend the validity period of any fishing right. That authority is firmly vested with Parliament. The Minister should propose an amendment bill to Parliament (Akin to what was presented by Minister MV Moosa in 2000, which resulted in the adoption of the MLRA Amendment Act of 2000). It is Parliament - and Parliament alone - that can "authorise" a fishing rights extension to 31 December 2021.

Cabinet's "decision" to extend the validity period (And thus the validity of individual fishing rights across 12 commercial fishery sectors) is thus unlawful and invalid and capable of legal review.

Further, this decision is yet another indictment of the extent of the institutional failure that has come to define this government. Government has had 15 years to prepare for this rights allocation process. 15 YEARS. 180 MONTHS. 5475 DAYS. And yet again, it is unprepared. Yet again, we are told of the same government having to fix corrupt processes of its own making. And yet again, it promises to implement credible and corrupt-free processes despite continuing to fail to purge the staff implicated in corruption and maladministration since FRAP 2013.