A "New Minister"; Another Illegal Decision in the Hake Trawl Fishery Appeals

It is incredible! The Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has now apparently issued her appeal decisions which have been outstanding since August 2019 when Minister Zokwana's fourth set of decisions in the hake inshore trawl and sole fishery were reviewed and set aside by the Western Cape High Court.

What is patently obvious is that we seem completely content to rely on appallingly bad legal advice. The extent of the illegality of this decision is actually quite breathtaking. In December 2018, Minister Zokwana decided to allocate a total of 36 hake inshore trawl and sole fishing rights. Of these, 17 were granted to existing or historic right holders. The remaining 19 rights were allocated to new entrants. Zokwana's decision in December 2018, followed an unlawful July 2017 decision which was reviewed and set aside on at least 3 separate occasions.

These 19 new entrants had in the interim entered into various types of commitments to have their 15-year fishing rights harvested, processed and marketed. Feike had repeatedly warned the Fisheries Minister since August 2019 that she needed to immediately communicate with the affected new entrant right holders and warn them of the consequences of the Western Cape High Court's August 2019 order and the possibility that their fishing rights may be at risk. No such communications were ever issued. Instead, as we have come to expect from an incompetent and inept Fisheries Department and Minister wracked by corruption and unsuitably skilled senior managers, paralysis was the chosen path.

And now suddenly, a "decision" table is issued sans any explanation or reasons for the tabular record which shows that the number of new entrants has been slashed from 19 to 10! We have a total of 27 right holders in the fishery (down from 36). After more than 3 years of confusion, repeated lost review applications and substantial costs to the industry, we are now back to the pre-July 2017 status quo.

However, it is expected that those new entrant right holders who have summarily lost their fishing rights will seek to urgently review and set aside this latest unlawful set of "decisions".