Reminder on date for fishing rights appeals
The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, wishes to remind the public and fishers that the closing date for appeals in the long term fishing rights allocation process is 21 February 2014. Late appeals will not be accepted, and anybody who feels aggrieved is urged to lodge an appeal before the closing date.
The Minister has been advised that to date, no appeals had been received.
Fishing rights in KZN prawn trawl, demersal shark, squid, tuna pole-line, hake handline, white mussel, traditional line fish and oyster fishing sectors were allocated for periods ranging from two to eight years. All rights in these sectors expired on 31 December 2013.
The department received a total of 3490 rights applications. 110 were for demersal shark, 530 for hake landline (154 applications were from companies and 376 from individuals). 81 were for KZN prawn trawl, 260 for oysters, 308 for squid, 1566 for traditional linefish, 329 for tuna pole-line and 306 for white mussels.
There have been 593 successful applicants and 2893 unsuccessful. In the demersal shark fishery, the provisional results indicate that rights have been received by 96.22% black owned companies, of which 50% are female, this is in comparison to 63% black owned companies in the 2005/6 allocation. In the hake handline fishery, the provisional results indicate that rights beneficiaries are 83.3% are black owned and 24% female. In traditional linefish, 77.2% are black owned, of which, 7% are female.
Applicants who are successful or unsuccessful, may, in terms of the provisions of Section 80 of the Marine Living Resources Act 18 of 1998 (the Act) appeal to the Minister against the decision of the delegated authority and the appeal shall be dealt with in the manner and in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Minister.
An applicant has 30 days after being notified of the decision to appeal to the Minister and an appeal must be served on the delegated authority, at the venues in the Western Cape; in Cape Town, Hermanus and Saldanha, Port Nolloth in the Northern Cape, Pretoria in Gauteng, Durban and in Port Elizabeth or per registered post.
The department will make an announcement regarding exemptions to former rights holders in due course.
