Cape Town - Fishermen claiming that the government’s interim relief process for small fishers was being mismanaged delivered a memorandum to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff) on Thursday, demanding that a proper small-scale fisheries policy be implemented.
A delegation of six fishers, supported by about 100 more, walked into the department’s offices on the Foreshore, saying they would not leave until their problems had been addressed.
In the memorandum, addressed to the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Senzeni Zokwana, and the deputy director-general of the department, Mortimer Manye, fishermen represented by Coastal Links South Africa and its secretariat, the Masifundise Development Trust, said the interim relief system was playing havoc with the lives of small-scale fishermen.
“The ongoing mismanagement of the interim relief system by Daff is causing much suffering in small-scale fishing communities across the Western and Northern Cape,” the fishermen said in their memorandum.
“The late issuing of permits, the inclusion of non-fishers in beneficiary lists and general mismanagement by the department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries deprives fishers of sustainable livelihoods and is causing conflict in communities,” they said.
The handing over of the memorandum turned into a “fruitful meeting between the department and the fishermen’s representatives”, said department spokesman Lionel Adendorf.
He said the department had undertaken to process all applications by the end of today and then allow until the end of next week for outstanding matters to do with the information on applications, to be sorted out.
Cape Argus