The purpose of this media statement issued by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Senzeni Zokwana, is to inform the South African public and the traditional line fish sector in particular of his provisional decisions on appeals filed against decisions taken on 30 December 2013 in the traditional line fishery (“the line fishery”). These provisional decisions are appended to this Public Notice.
It is important to note that these are provisional decisions, taken in accordance with a settlement agreement ordered by the Western Cape High Court under Case Number 2569/2014. These provisional decisions record the Minister’s interim decisions on all 564 appeals filed in the line fishery.
Members of the South African public and the traditional line fishery are afforded 15 days until 16h00 on 23 March 2016 to provide comment on these provisional decisions. Comment may be submitted either telephonically on 0800 212 513 or via email to linefish2013@whistleblowing.co.za or deposited in hard copy form in a sealed envelope into a dedicated “LINE FISH PROVISIONAL DECISION COMMENT” box which will be placed in the Customer Services Centre located on the Ground Floor of Foretrust Building, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Martin Hammerschlag Way, Foreshore, Cape Town. Comment submitted in any other manner may not be receipted or considered.
Where a complainant makes allegations against an appellant, the appellant party will be afforded a right to respond to any adverse allegation or comment. Where an appellant is alleged to have provided false information or misrepresented factual information (such as ownership of a fishing vessel or compliance with the Marine Living Resources Act), such allegations will be investigated and verified by an independent forensic audit firm appointed by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The identity of the person making any allegations of impropriety will not be made known to the appellant, the Department or the Minister’s appeals advisory team.
It is important to note that as these are provisional decisions, no appellant whose appeal may be listed as being provisionally successful may commence fishing until such time as the Minister has published the final set of decisions for this fishery. Similarly, any person who is presently fishing under the authority of an exemption (whether by operation of the settlement agreement issued under Case Number 2569/2014 or any other exemption authorization issued by the department), shall continue to exercise such authority until such time as the Minister has published his final set of decisions on appeals in this fishery.
In so far as right holder appellants are concerned the following appeal evaluation rules were implemented:
- All information was considered provided it existed as at 4 October 2013 (ie the submission deadline for long term traditional line fishing rights). Information created after this date and submitted on appeal was not considered;
- All appellants were evaluated to ensure that they demonstrated a right of access to a suitable traditional line fish vessel. Those appellants who failed to demonstrate a legally enforceable right of access to a suitable vessel have been denied a right;
- All appellants who contested their zero points scoring and evaluation on the “compliance” criterion and who had not fallen foul of any of the sub-criteria listed under the “compliance” criterion were granted the full score of 11.11% points;
- The scoring and evaluation of the manual data-scoring criterion that measured the fishing performance of right holder appellants was revised. The revised scoring and weighting criterion (with a maximum of 10% points) focused on comparing right holder appellants with other right holder appellants from their own fishing zones only.
Comparative performance data was determined based on each right holder’s respective CPUE data for the period January 2007 to December 2012 and the CPUE data was determined based on each right holder’s total catch for the period divided by each right holder’s respective crew allocations.
New entrant appellants were similarly evaluated in so far as the above rules applied to them.
The Provisional Decisions at a Glance
- Of the 564 appeals, the Minister hereby provisionally grants rights to a total of –
- 169 appellants in Zone A.
- 22 appellants in Zone B.
- 15 appellants in Zone C.
- With respect to Zone B, the available number of rights / effort is insufficient to accommodate all appellants who scored above the minimum score determined by the delegated authority in December 2013. The effort currently available for allocation in Zone B is 22 rights / vessels. In order to maintain sustainable effort limitations within Zone B, the Minister has provisionally decided to refuse all new entrant appellants a right in Zone B only. In addition, the Minister has provisionally decided to allocate traditional line fish rights in Zone B to the top 22 scoring right holder appellants.
- The available effort in Zones A and C is sufficient to accommodate all new entrant and right holder appellants who scored above the respective minimum scores required for a right be granted and who satisfied the exclusionary criteria set for the fishery.
For more information, please contact:
Bomikazi Molapo
Minister’s Spokesperson
Cell: 078 801 3711
E-mail: BomikaziM@daff.gov.za
