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 The Western Cape High Court on 19 August 2026 set aside Minister Creecy's South Coast rock lobster (SCRL) quantum allocation methodology (QAM), declaring the QAM to be an arbitrary and irrational decision.  The order affects all current right holders in the fishery as their individual allocations have been declared to have been the product of an unlawful process.  The 2026/2027 SCRL season commences on 1 October 2026 and Minister Maynier has to of course decide the season's total allowable catch before that.  The Minister cannot decide next season's TAC allocations to right holders based on the current QAM because to do so would be unlawful. Accordingly, Minister Maynier will have to do the following without delay:  1.     Develop a draft revised QAM based on the judgement; 2.     Issue the proposed draft QAM to all current right holders for comment. An expedited comment period would be justifiable given the fact that the season starts in ju...

 On 19 August 2026, the Western Cape High Court finally ruled in Risar Fishing CC v The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries & Agriculture & Others  that the quantum allocation methodology adopted by Creecy was irrational and arbitrary and thus set it aside.  This effectively meant that nearly every single decision taken by Creecy during the FRAP 2021/2022 has been reviewed and set aside. The financial costs to the department must be staggering as every decision has been aside with costs awarded against the Minister. We would estimate no less than 40 individual reviews have been successfully brought by various fishing companies resulting in the setting aside of hundreds of decisions in the squid, small pelagics, hake, South Coast rock lobster and tuna pole sectors.   And despite repeatedly telling numerous courts how Creecy (and then subsequently Dion George) relied exclusively on the advice of the same core team of departmental legal advisors, none of these advis...