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Minister Dion George of the Democratic Alliance has issued 11 ton hake long line fishing rights. Yes, you read that correctly. 11 tons. Of hake long line granted to new entrant, black-owned fishing companies!  If you are not familiar with fishing, an 11 ton hake long line fishing quota is worth about R80,000 annually, where vessels cost upward of R10 million (used and 50 years old); and processing and export costs would consume 50% of that income. 11 tons would be caught in approximately 10 hours of fishing.  Essentially, allocating 11 ton rights to right holders is effectively unlawful as those right holders can only ever be paper quota holders in violation of the MLRA and policies promulgated in terms of it.  It is inconceivable how Minister Dion George of the DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE could allocate right holders such quotas particuarly since the Hake Long Line Fishing Policy states that the allocation of quota must " facilitate their meaningful participation in the fishery ...

We submitted the following comments on the draft fish processing establishment and transfer of commercial fishing rights policies.  The draft Fish Processing Establishment Policy In short, our comment is that the draft FPE policy is an anachronistic, archaic reproduction of past ANC-led fishing policy that has stifled and stunted economic growth and activity in the South African commercial fishing industry. The draft FPE policy ought to be binned in its current format. Our high-level comments follow.  1. Firstly, the draft policy records that there are currently approximately 346 (138 land-based, 198 vessel-based and a combination 10 of land based and vessel-based) right/exemption holders across the country. In short, the department simply does not know who or what is processing fish.  2  Secondly, the MLRA definition of “fish processing” is so wide that an FPE right and permit is legally required by every fish monger / fish shop, every retailer of seafood (Woolworth...