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On 5 December 2013, the Public Protector finally published her damning report on the illegal R800 million vessel management tender allocated to the Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium ("SMSC") by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and her department in November 2011.  What follows is the official Executive Summary of the Report published by the Office of the Public Protector. The full report is accessible on the public protector's website or from Feike. What is plainly apparent from the final report, is that -  1. The Minister and her department insisted on allocating an illegal tender to Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium in November 2011 despite a legal opinion and a forensic audit report by PWC that warned against the tender allocation;  2. The Minister's subsequent and inexplicable conduct resulted in South Africa's fleet of patrol and research vessels being seriously damaged by an incompetent and incapable Navy, consequen...

The Sunday Times today revealed that the Public Protector's preliminary investigations and findings into the R800 million Sekunjalo Tender debacle has confirmed what Feike has been saying for months now. That the Minister of Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, is simply unfit to hold public office. According to the Sunday Times, "The preliminary report, titled " My Way or No Sea Patrols ", investigated the "irregular" awarding of an R800-million tender two years ago to Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium, led by businessman Iqbal Survé. The report, which will be made public on Thursday, says: The awarding of the contract - to manage the department's fleet of research and patrol ships - to Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium was improper and constituted maladministration; The tender award process showed evidence of collusive tendering and/or bid rigging by the Sekunjalo consortium; and The department awarded the contract, in Novem...

ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL STOCK ASSESSMENT REVIEW WORKSHOP, UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, MONDAY 2 TO FRIDAY 6 DECEMBER 2012 Over Monday 2 to Friday 6 December an international panel of scientists will be conducting an annual review of the analyses used to provide scientific advice for the management of the major South African fisheries. This review takes the form of a workshop to be held at the University of Cape Town (Mathematics Building Room M212, 9 am to 5-30 pm daily, except for an 11 am start on the Tuesday).  Four leading international fisheries scientists make up the review panel. They are Sean Cox (Simon Fraser University, Canada), Ana Parma (Centro Nacional Patagonico, Argentina), Andre Punt (University of Washington, USA) and Tony Smith (Chair, Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation, Australia). Discussions this year will focus on the four-yearly process currently in progress of revision of the formula used to recommend catches for hake, which is So...

During the 2012/2013 season 38 fishers held interim relief (IR) lobster fishing quotas in the Struisbaai area. For the current season, DAFF added a further 20 quota holders and with them came a new "community" representative appointed by DAFF. The original community representative, Mr Henry Bantom, who was appointed by the 38 IR quota holders has been removed and replaced by a Mr Charles Thompson. No one seems to know how this person was appointed to represent an entire community of Struisbaai lobster fishers and when this appointment occurred.  What is clear is that the 38 original quota holders have been told by DAFF officials, including Desmond Stevens, that he will not talk to them. Stevens  will only communicate with the representative - Mr Thompson - who is now in charge of the entire Struisbaai lobster allocation. It is understood that - as has been reported in the Cape Times today (26 November) - a company called "Two Oceans" has been punted and put for...

Within 24 hours of Feike writing about DAFF's unlawful and questionable processes of allocating Interim Relief 8 lobster quotas which are now to be administered solely and exclusively by persons secretly appointed by DAFF, we have received further examples of possible corruption and community conflict in the Stanford area near Gansbaai and in Kleinmond near Hermanus.  Feike has received information that some 15 Stanford interim relief lobster fishers have suddenly been removed from the Stanford list of Interim Relief lobster right holders by a Ms Francina Booysen (chosen by DAFF to "lead" the Stanford IR "co-operative" group) because they refused to agree to sell their fish to a company that DAFF wants them to use to process and market their lobster.  The only possible inference for such egregiously illegal conduct is that one or more DAFF officials are being paid a bribe by the processing and marketing company to force right holders to use its service...

The Global Oceans Commission has released summary reports on key policy issues affecting High Seas Governance. These summaries are currently available on the GOC website . The following are the 10 key policy areas that have been addressed: 1.     A Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for the global ocean 2.     Climate change, ocean acidification and geo-engineering 3.     Elimination of marine pollution affecting the high seas 4.     Bioprospecting and marine genetic resources 5.     Deep seabed mining 6.     Eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies 7.     MPAs: protecting high seas biodiversity 8.     Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing 9.     Reform of high seas fisheries management 10.   Modernising ocean governance  Comment can be submitted to  ideas@globaloceancommission.org 

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