On Friday 20 October 2023, Barbara Creecy's appeal decisions of 12 June 2023 to introduce new entrants to the fishery and reduce the effort allocations of the historic right holders was interdicted pending a review application which has to be brought before the end of October 2023.
The court in Visko Seeprodukte & 40 others v The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment & 48 Others gave a clear indication as well that the review will likely succeed which will mean that the Minister's squid appeal decisions will be reviewed and set aside and she will have to start the squid appeals process afresh.
However, Friday's court decision has a significantly broader impact than just halting the unlawful allocation of rights to new entrants in the squid fishery.
Judge Salie's judgement makes it clear that the Minister cannot simply allocate additional fishing rights on appeal without first consulting with every other existing right holder in the fishery. Section 80(3) of the Marine Living Resources Act requires the Minister "to consider any matter submitted to him or her on appeal, after giving every person with an interest in the matter an opportunity to state his or her case."
This legal obligation on the part of the Minister was made clear by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and Others v Atlantic Fishing Enterprises (Pty) Ltd and Others 20 years ago.
The legal effect of Judge Salie's judgement is therefore significant. The Minister's appeal decisions where she introduced additional right holders in the hake deep-sea trawl and South Coast rock lobster fisheries resulting in the existing right holders "losing" quota are therefore all susceptible to judicial review because the Minister failed to first consult with the existing pool of right holders about the reduction of their respective individual fishing rights.
Friday's judgement conceivably will also affect those appeal decisions even where the net effect of the appeal decisions did not result in the existing right holders losing quota or effort because the addition of more right holders to the fishery would affect the fishing and sustainability interests of right holders.
No comments:
Post a Comment