Today, 20 November 2012 at 12.30pm, hundreds of small-scale fishers of South Africa will stage a protest demonstration outside the offices of Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to demand community permits to enable them to legally catch west coast rock lobster, according to Naseegh Jaffer, Director of Masifundise, an NGO that supports small-scale fishers.
In a media release, he pointed out that in 2007 Judge Nathan Erasmus issued an Equality Court Order obliging the Minister to issue Interim Relief Permits to qualifying small-scale fishers. This was to remain in force until a new policy is finalised for this sector. These are destitute fishers who have no other means of income and who did not succeed to obtain long term quotas as a result of the strong commercial requirements of the long term fishing policy.
For the last few years these permits have been severely abused resulting in significant illegal fishing and over catching. Last season the Department had to suspend the catching of crayfish as a result of over catching. In this context the Department had a workshop with a variety of stakeholders on 24 August where it was agreed that to move away from individual permits to community allocations. Such allocation would allow for better managements systems and control over the permit.
This was to be implemented with the opening of the crayfish season on 15 November. But it did not happen because the Minister overruled the workshop decision.
Now fishers are up in arms as their livelihood is yet again taken away. This is blatantly unfair towards poor fishers, said Naseegh Jaffer. It shows a blatant disregard for their plight. They have no other income and the Minister is punishing further for being poor, he said.
Jaffer further said that these fishers can in fact be a helping hand in protecting the lobster resource. Now the Minister is in fact forcing them to become poachers because they have to earn some income
The fishers will hand over a memorandum calling for the immediate issuing of community permits and for an urgent meeting with the Minister to devise better system to manage Interim Relief.