April 13, 2012 – Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson reportedly plans to eliminate the fishing rights of South Africa’s “Big Five” fishing firms when they come up for review in 2013.
She shared her news in secret, but it leaked to Feike Chief Executive Shaheen Moolla, a former adviser to previous ministers, Independent Online reports.
The “white” fishing companies that controlled the industry and that benefitted from generous quotas must cede these rights to community fishers, Joemat-Pettersson reportedly affirmed. She said the Industrial Development Corporation would be approached to buy fishing vessels so small players can enter the industry.
Moolla said he had received input from staff present at the meeting and that taking away fishing licences would mean a form of “nationalisation” of the industry.”
FishSA chairman Tim Redell, whose group represents commercial fishing companies, acknowledged that the Big Five – Oceana, I&J, Sea Harvest, FoodCorp and Viking – probably controlled about 60 per cent of the sector and their share was growing considerably.
Redell, who is a director of Viking, said it was pointless to bring in additional vessels into the deep-sea fishing industry given that there were too many vessels already.
He added that the long-term licences granted in 2005 for hake deep-sea trawl quotas were valid until 2020.
The 2013 allocation round – which lasts eight years – was for the total allowance catch in species located closer to the coast, such as tuna and West Coast rock lobster, which involved 3,000 companies.
Moolla noted that the big companies were all black-empowered and have at least 30 per cent black ownership.