Minister stalls, so black fleet can't fish

Bartolomeu Dias would sail straight past Mossel Bay if he discovered it today. Derelict fish-processing plants, tied-up trawlers and fishermen perched along the quay like hungry seagulls - the once bustling harbour is a fishing graveyard due largely to a legal stalemate over the government's fishing rights allocation process.

The country's hake inshore trawling fleet has been grounded by yet another stand-off over fishing transformation, with dire consequences for the fishermen.

The company hardest hit by the impasse is, ironically, 100% black-owned. It has appealed to Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana to rescue its workers from destitution.

BMC Fishing said it and other rights holders who depended on the inshore fishery were being held to ransom by Zokwana who, they claim, has the power to allow fishing pending the outcome of a court case.

BMC, which has operated for 15 years, has two trawlers and employs 24 crew and a similar number of shore staff.

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"They shut down the industry," BMC director Lionell Brown said this week. "The minister is the only person who can give the existing rights holders an exemption to catch fish. We are at the mercy of the minister who needs to make a decision.

Brown said the grounding of the fleet was having a devastating effect on his staff and the Mossel Bay community. Unlike larger companies, BMC was unable to substitute fish caught in another division to offset losses in the inshore sector.

New long-term rights were announced in December, but have not come into effect because of a court interdict obtained in January by Viking Fishing, one of the largest hake inshore rights holders which had its quota slashed by 60%. Viking wants the court to set aside a new list of long-term rights allocations that favour new entrants - many of them with no experience in the sector. It is alleging procedural flaws and illegalities.

The case was postponed this week to April.

Zokwana's spokeswoman, Bomikazi Molapo, said this week that the minister could not issue fishing exemptions because the matter was before court.

"The hardships being experienced by small quota holders in the hake inshore trawl fishery are precisely what the minister warned the court and Viking against on December 29 when Viking asked for this extremely damaging and discriminatory relief," Molapo said.

She said that although the minister could grant exemptions to alleviate any hardships to small and medium-sized businesses that relied solely on inshore hake trawling, he could not because of the interim order Viking had obtained. This prevented the minister and the deputy director-general from issuing any permits.

"The hardships being faced by small operators are due to Viking's ill-considered and selfish conduct," she said.

Maritime legal sources this week said the interdict did not prevent the minister granting exemptions.

"Exemptions can be issued outside of the [rights] allocations and the interdict will not apply to them," said one legal expert, who did not want to be named. Another maritime lawyer agreed and said Viking had even raised the issue of exemptions before taking legal action.

However, fisheries consultant Shaheen Moolla, writing this week in a blog, said only a narrow reading of the Viking court interdict allowed the minister to issue fishing exemptions, but there were counter-arguments that backed the minister's view that this was not possible.

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"The short answer is that very little can be done [to allow fishing] because the order sought and granted to Viking is wide ranging and was aimed to stop all fishing in the hake inshore trawl fishery."

Zokwana has defended the new allocations, saying they were necessary to transform the industry which he had branded "lily white".

This was denied by industry associations which claimed overall 62% black ownership.

Viking said legal action was a last resort to prevent the implosion of its hake inshore division. In its submission to court, it questioned the scoring method used to determine rights holders.

"We had no option but to embark on this route," said Viking MD Tim Reddell. "Look at BMC; this shows that the system is flawed. A large percentage of the [new] entrants will never actively become active in the fishery. So why not support a BMC at the very least?"

Brown this week also questioned how a 100% black-owned company could end up having its quota reduced. Despite being in the industry for 15 years and investing millions in the local economy, BMC's quota was significantly less than new entrants who had no boat and had made no investment.

One new entrant who received more than BMC was based in Port Nolloth - about 1000km away from the hake inshore trawl area, said Brown.

"Yes transformation needs to take place, but you have to do it right," he said.

Ernest Jansen, a BMC fisherman, said the company's employees blamed the government.

"It's the government, not the big companies, who are to blame," he said. "We're falling behind with our housing bonds, our kids at school," Jansen said. "All the boats are tied up."

Trawler and Line Fishermen's Union general secretary Gert Christie said Zokwana urgently needed to step in to resolve the situation.

"What will the minister do to ensure there is food on the table?" Christie said.

jordanb@sundaytimes.co.za