Cape Town - The provincial ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has demanded that the Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Department review or restart the 2021/22 Fishing Rights Allocation Process (Frap) and have urged “all progressive forces” to lodge their appeals on or before the July 29 deadline.
In a statement signed by ANCYL spokesperson Mesuli Kama, the league is pressing Minister Barbara Creecy to immediately embark on a widespread consultation process with all small-scale fishing communities on the issue.
The ANCYL statement condemned what it calls the practice where fishing rights continue to be awarded to predominantly white establishments while black people suffer and called for lifestyle audits of department officials involved in the Frap process as well as the termination of contracts for international service providers employed in the process.
The demands come in the wake of complaints by small fishers that the Frap process has tried to push them into poverty and to the periphery while favouring commercial companies.
Reacting to the ANCYL demands, SA United Fishing Front (Sauff) chairperson Pedro Garcia said Sauff agreed with the calls that the ANCYL were making, but thought they had gone a step too far by focusing attention on the department's administrative processes and service providers.
“What we are trying to do is to declare that it's a botched process and I don't think there can be any doubt insofar as that goes.”
He said Sauff did not just want the Frap process overturned, they were demanding that an immediate national indaba be held on fisheries, as well as a repeal or review of the Marine Resources Act.
He said these initiatives need to take place, whilst Frap is either suspended or a moratorium is in place against it and that based on the outcomes from a national indaba, they could all move forward.
“This cannot just be between small-scale fishers and the minister, it has to be between each and every stakeholder in the industry. Unless we do that, the small-scale policy is not worth the paper that it's written on,” Garcia said.
Last month, cleric and struggle stalwart Allan Boesak held talks with fishers across the Western Cape during which calls were made for a clearing and restructuring of Frap.