On 22 February 2023, Minister Creecy issued her third appeals timetable in as many months! Does she and her staff even know what they said the previous month? And to Parliament?
They are literally just making it up as they go along. And she continues to insist that she has completed the shark demersal appeals and yet there is simply no record of these appeals, anywhere!
The third revised appeals timetable is as follows:
The phases and anticipated finalisation dates for each phase is as follows (verbatim from the Minister's press statement of 22 February 2023):
- Phase one of the appeals process, which was completed on 2 December 2022, dealt with the appeals in the demersal shark sector, the KwaZulu-Natal crustacean trawl sector and with miscellaneous and non-compliant appeals. [Neither the appeal decisions for shark demersal or the "miscellaneous and non-compliant appeals" have been published some 85 days later]
- Phase two of the appeals process is presently under consideration and deals with the appeals in the south coast rock lobster sector and the traditional line fish sector. These appeals are due to be finalised by 28 February 2023. The department is committed to meet this timeline. [This is in 2 days' time]
- Phase three of the appeals process deals with the tuna pole line and squid sectors. These appeals are currently under consideration by the minister’s appeals advisory team for their recommendations to minister. The proposed date for finalisation of these appeals is 30 April 2023.
- Phase four of the appeals process deals with the appeals in hake deep sea trawl and hake longline sectors. Considering the volume (120 hake deep sea trawl and 280 hake longline) and complexity of appeals in this sector, the proposed date for finalisation of these appeals is 30 July 2023. [This is incredulous. 12 months to decide 400 appeals. In 2018, Minister Zokwana (albeit under the terms of a court order) decided a similar number of rock lobster appeals in 30 days]
- Phase five of the appeals process deals with the appeals in the small pelagic: sardine (169 appeals) and anchovy (230 appeals) sectors. The department is endeavouring to complete phase five of the appeal process by 30 October 2023.
It is of course laughable that this Minister took approximately 5 months to finalise some 6 appeals in the KZN Prawn Trawl fishery. At that rate it will take her 42, 245 days to finalise the remaining appeals! In all honesty, this Minister simply does not have the ability or the skilled personnel required to deal with these appeals. And as we saw from the KZN Prawn Trawl appeal decisions, they are woefully bad, ignorant and unlawful.
The Minister's statements also confirm that her delegated authority's have failed to comply with a mandatory procedural requirement in terms of regulation 5 of the 1998 Fisheries Regulations. They have each failed to produce the peremptory appeal reports within 30 days of the appeals closure date. And given the context of these decisions and the sectors they affect, taking 6 months to decide 6 appeals (for example) is wholly unreasonable and an affront to the constitutional and statutory requirements of fair and reasonable administrative action. These are reviewable grounds alone.
Will this incompetent ANC government produce the ridiculous Minister of Electricity and Silly Walks before it produces the next appeal results?
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