During the FRAP 2013 process, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries received/recorded 3 490 fishing rights applications. The rights were allocated in the following eight commercial fishing sectors: Hake Handline, Demersal Shark, Tuna Pole-line, Squid, Traditional Linefish, Oyster, White Mussel and KZN Prawn Trawl sectors.
A cumulative total of 593 applicants were successful in the respective sectors. Following the rights allocation decision, a number of unsuccessful applicants lodged appeals with the department as per provision of Section 80 of the Marine Living Resources Act (the MLRA).
As a result of contestation of the allocation process and a court application by the South African Commercial Linefish Association (SACLA) against the department, the Minister withheld the processing of the recorded 1 083 appeals received. As a part of further verification and attesting the contestations, the Minister authorised an independent review on the Fishing Rights Allocation Process (FRAP 2013) to ascertain whether there were any flaws in the process. The independent review report has since been finalised and analysed by legal experts appointed by the department and its findings have been considered while the SACLA court application is still pending.
In respect of the independent report findings, the Minister has decided to process all appeals received in all sectors except for appeals in the Traditional Linefish sector as of May 2015. A process in respect of Traditional Linefish FRAP 2013 appeals shall pend until a settlement has been reached between the department and SACLA.
All appellants are hereby informed that the department will communicate progress on the appeals received on a monthly basis through media and/or individual responses.
For more information, please contact:
Steve Galane, Minister’s Spokesperson
Cell: 083 635 7346
