On 28 January 2025, Dion George's fisheries department decided to terminate the annual fishing authorizations for 178 abalone divers based on some mysterious "investigation" his department undertook in 2024 and concluded in December 2024.
Not only did the department terminate the right of these divers to earn an income in 2025, they did so without ever first affording the divers any due process - not once did the department first consult any of these divers and ask them to explain the allegations of wrongdoing they were purportedly found guilty of in January 2025.
And then the department failed to even tell these divers what the charges are that they faced. Only now in April has the department begun informing individual divers what the allegations of wrongdoing are and every single one I have seen is bogus and they are all very similar.
Almost all divers are accused of misrepresenting the diving zone from where they recorded a particular catch in 2024. But when one examines the landing slips used to record individual abalone landings for each dive day, together with the vessel monitoring reports, the department's allegations fall completely flat. It appears that the department does not understand its own landing slips and cannot interpret vessel monitoring system reports.
But the department could so easily have avoided ruining the lives of abalone divers by simply first consulting with each of these 178 divers BEFORE terminating their income source. Why were individual divers not consulted in 2024?
This type of hamfisted, unlawful conduct is fully expected from an ANC government but Dion George is increasingly demonstrating that he is simply a continuation of the destructive and poor executive leadership that has defined the maladministration and destructive governance of our fisheries sector since Tina Joemat Pettersson's corrupt and ruinous "reign" over fisheries.
At the beginning of April 2025, 110 divers and 3 abalone marketing companies elected to take Dion George to court to ensure that their right to an income is restored and that they are afforded due process and the right to be heard before government officials simply decide on some whim to terminate sources of income, especially important for small-scale fishers.
*Postscript: It has to be said that over the years, I advised previous shadow DA fisheries ministers and even drafted fisheries policy for the DA when Pieter Van Dalen was their shadow minister. Dion George's governance to date contradicts everything that the DA supposedly stood for when it comes to SA fisheries management. It does appear that unlike his colleagues in Public Works and Home Affairs - for example - he has chosen to travel to international conferences and cut ribbons.
