Allegations of racism have surfaced in the line-fishing rights row, with Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries deputy director-general Desmond Stevens giving offence to one group of fishermen.
The South African Commercial Linefish Association (Sacla) is appointing legal representatives for its fight against the department. It was at a meeting on Monday to discuss its plans to interdict the department’s award process that Mr Stevens’s comments on social media platform Facebook were raised.
Sacla chairman Wally Croome referred to an entry Mr Stevens allegedly made on Sunday, which said: “My Madiba-installed tolerance level for Caucasians has just expired. My sincere apologies for the harm it might cause in the future. Please stay clear from me if you fit the universally defined descriptions.”
Mr Stevens’s office had not responded to e-mail and telephone requests for comment at the time of going to press. Mr Stevens is chairman of the Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association and is coloured.
From January 1, the number of rights available in the traditional line-fish sector was cut from 455 to about 225, with only 115 of the rights awarded to previous rights holders, locking 180 previous holders out of the system.
Many of the 100 new rights holders have no background or experience in fishing and hold rights in other sectors.
The vast majority of the line fishermen are white, although their crews are mostly Cape coloured people who have a long tradition of fishing.
The skippers and owners of the boats do not work for established companies and many have to finance their fishing ventures by taking second mortgages. They supply the mostly coloured and black hawkers who are able to resell their fish at lower prices than major retail operations.
Mr Croome said he did not want to comment on Mr Stevens’s post. However, he said: “I am disappointed as we prayed for him at the church service we held last week.”
Mr Croome told the gathering of fishermen that larger fishing companies were watching their pending legal challenge with great interest.
“We have met with Oceana Fisheries and while they do not have a policy of lending support, they said they would take our case to (large fishing industry association) Fish South Africa. They are very concerned that the score sheets marked for the rights allocation took no account of the capital investment made by us in our boats and crews,” he said.
Oceana CEO Francois Kuttel told Business Day that “no one from Oceana was in attendance at the meeting in question and as such as we do not have the context. We note the developments with interest, but as we are not active in the commercial line-fishing sector, we feel it is best to direct queries through the industry association, Fish SA.”
Fish SA did not respond to any queries.
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