Small-scale fishers to appeal Daff list
SMALL-SCALE fishers are adamant they will appeal a provisional list which the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Daff) issued last week.
Daff issued the names of 126 fishing communities that made the list.
Masifundise Development Trust (MDT) says fishers had to be notified within 90 days after registering interest to be recognised as genuine fishers as per the small-scale fishers policy, but Daff took almost five months to make the results known.
MDT spokesperson Nosipho Singiswa said only 47 people out of a registered 120 were named on the list for Buffelsjagsbaai, while only four out of 44 in Kleinmond made the list.
Daff small-scale fishers director Craig Smith said many traditional fishers do not have permit records to substantiate their claims as small-scale fishers.
“Of the four fishers recognised in Buffelsjagsbaai, two were on interim relief and two are commercial fishers. The two commercial fishers have already indicated they are not going to come over to the small-scale, which leaves us with only two fishers for the policy,” she said.
Singiswa said the irony was that the small-scale fishers who had been recognised as the caretakers under the interim relief (IR) were now no longer recognised.
“For 11 years Daff has recognised people as small-scale fishers under the IR, but suddenly they are not small-scale fishers any more. We will appeal against this list and each fisher must go and get their own individual appeal forms.”
She said only 47 people out of 120 registered found their names on the list in Buffelsjagsbaai.
Smith said Daff elected to involve communities in the verification of community fishers as part of the prescribed small-scale fishing regulations.
“The department does not know the community members to decide whether they meet the small-scale fisher criteria or not. Hence Daff requested community members to elect community panel members to assess Daff with the verification of fishers,” he said.
He said in many cases community members were excluded by their own elected panel.
Smith stressed the verification process was to establish a provisional list of small-scale fishers, and at this stage no current benefit in terms of permits or rights to be allocated to the successful list provided.
“This list is likely to increase with the assessment of appeals. We encourage unsuccessful applicants to follow the appeals process and to be assured that all the appeal information will be submitted directly to Daff for further assessment to determine whether the applicant meets the prescribed small-scale fisher criteria.”
He said after the assessment of appeals, the department will announce a final list of successful small-scale fishers.
“These fishers would be mobilised into a co-operative by the department, which would include basic co-operative training, before a rights allocation process can be conducted.”