Fisheries management is clearly “in the wrong hands”, MPs have been told in a frank assessment of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson’s guardianship of South Africa’s R5bn fishing industry.
The paper, drawn up by Parliament’s research unit, is intended to guide MPs from all parties in their oversight of state departments. It was prepared for the minister and director-general Sipho Ntombela’s appearance on Thursday at Parliament’s portfolio committee on agriculture, forestry and fisheries.
The document lists mismanaged ships, a lack of research planning, and targets and a strategic plan out of step with the National Development Plan (NDP) as challenges that must be addressed.
Ms Joemat-Pettersson last appeared before the committee in October, and has previously cited health problems and work engagements as excuses for not appearing before the committee.
At a meeting of the committee on Tuesday, some African National Congress MPs joined opposition parties in calling for the minister to attend the meeting.
Chairman Mlungisi Johnson warned Ms Joemat-Pettersson and Mr Ntombela that the committee would not recognise the department’s submission on the Marine Living Resources Fund.
“This is serious. They have to appear otherwise there can be no deliberations and the approval cannot be granted,” Mr Johnson told Business Day.
Democratic Alliance MP Pieter van Dalen said Parliament’s research unit and the auditor-general had placed a lot of blame on the minister for the inefficiencies of her department.
“We as a committee must also be blamed for not conducting our oversight role, but the minister has avoided appearing before the committee,” Mr van Dalen said.
The research paper makes it clear that the management of South Africa’s fisheries is being badly neglected.
“This strategic plan is expected to (guide) the management of the approximately R5bn industry. However, the lack of seriousness among the officials (in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) who compiled it leaves much to be desired. This is a clear indication that this fisheries management responsibility is in the wrong hands.”
The paper said Ms Joemat-Pettersson had ignored the NDP’s warning against reducing the catch rights allocated to commercial fisheries, which were now 59% black-owned, and awarding them instead to small, medium-sized and micro enterprises (SMMEs). The report said the NDP warned that “this approach will cut jobs”.
“Once again in a defiant mode, the department is planning to allocate 70% of fishing rights to SMMEs during the 2013-14 financial year,” the paper said.
South Africa suffers an unemployment rate that hovers at about 25% and the document noted that the commercial fishing sector employed about 27,000 people.
There was no indication that any research into new fisheries would be conducted this financial year, nor any indication the department would press ahead with its declared plans to introduce agro-processing in communities that had traditionally relied on selling fresh fish. Both of these deviations required explanation.
Central to the government’s overarching economic development plans, such as the NDP, the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the Integrated Growth and Development Plan, in relation to fisheries management, were “strategies (or) vehicles for tackling the problems of poverty, inequality and unemployment in a sustainable way”.
The paper acknowledged that the expansion of the fisheries sector comprising 22 fisheries was “limited by the natural productive capacity of the marine living resources, which are already under strain”, and said the NDP “encouraged research into new fisheries to expand opportunities”.
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