In the past month of August, several hundreds, if not thousands, of South African fishers have gone missing. It seems particularly tragic that this should happen in the month that has come to be known as “Women’s Month in South Africa, the month in which the nation pays tribute to the sacrifices that women have made in the struggle for a democratic, equitable South Africa.
At a post-Cabinet media briefing in Pretoria shortly after Women’s Day, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Ms Tina Joemat-Pettersson, announced that passing the Marine Living Resources Amendments Bill will ensure the inclusion and recognition of small-scale fishers in the economy of fishing, re-establishing the economies of fishing communities.
Eighteen years after democracy, the Bill will make it possible for small-scale fishers’ rights to marine resources to finally be recognised. The Amendments Bill will enable the department to implement the new Policy on Small-scale Fisheries that it gazetted in 2012. This policy explicitly states the need to ensure redress and equity for women, and commits the department to promoting gender equity. Shortly after making this announcement, the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), in partnership with Total South Africa, hosted the 13th annual DAFF Female Entrepreneur Awards at a gala dinner held at the St George Hotel in Pretoria on 12 August 2013. The awards are part of the department’s contribution during the Women’s Month, in line with the theme of “Harnessing women’s talent for sustainable food security: A vision beyond 2030”.
Subsequently, hundreds, if not thousands, of women fishers have disappeared. Despite the explicit commitment to gender equity, the announcement by the Minister has been covered by various national and regional news agencies to refer to fishermen. Further, the DAFF Implementation Plan for the Policy that was rolled out at a road show in Cape Town last week fails to outline any specific measures whereby the department will ensure that gender equity is secured in this deeply male-dominated industry. In fact, it looks as if the future for women in the industry is business as usual, reduced to harnessing their talent for invisible work in an inequitable economic system. “Harnessing” ” talent” for food security?
Five news items in the South African news in the past ten days relating to the Minister’s announcement and to the re-opening of the Durban pier to fishers all refer to fishermen. Where have all the fisherwomen gone? For the past 15 years, women from local fishing communities have been at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of their traditional small-scale fishing communities to be recognised. Women in South Africa have historically played a critical role in fisheries, providing much of the reproductive and productive labour upon which fisheries depends.
They have fought not only for a new policy based on gender equity, but for the transformation of the exploitative relations upon which the political economy of the South Africa fishing industry rests. What has happened to these women from fishing communities?
2013 ICSF