Fishery BEE setback fails to float ANC chief’s boat
A 12-metre fishing vessel gathering seagulls in Hout Bay took centre stage this week in a legal showdown over BEE on the high seas.
The chairman of the ANC fishing desk, Harry Mentor, claims his boat, the Avril W, has been left high and dry by an interdict granted by the High Court in Cape Town that has effectively stopped him cashing in on valuable new fishing rights finalised last month.
Mentor was one of several potential new rights holders in the hake inshore trawl fishery. Fishing desk secretary Faizel Moosa, who is on the reserve list, also nominated the Avril W as his hake inshore trawl vessel.
The rights allocations are being disputed by Cape Townbased Viking Fishing, which lost 60% of its quota and claims the move was illegal and unfair.
The allocations have also come under fire from community fishermen, who said they believed politically connected individuals were benefiting at the expense of the poor — a claim denied by Moosa.
In an affidavit, Mentor said he had spent more than R1-million — R6-million in total — converting the Avril W into a trawler for this year’s fishing season.
He said the interdict would mean he “would not be able to fish for six months, whilst continuing to carry its overhead costs and capital expenditure”.
Mentor’s claims were disputed in court when Viking — which lodged the interdict application — submitted documents and photographs of the Avril W. Viking’s photographs show the vessel had in fact not been converted into a trawler.
Group financial officer for Viking, Rory Williams, said in a replying affidavit that far from being a trawler, the Avril W was still “equipped for hake long-line fishing. It has no infrastructure that equips it to fish for hake inshore.”
Moosa insisted the Avril W had indeed been extensively renovated in preparation for hake trawling. “The only thing the boat still needs is a winch,” he said.
On Friday, Fishing Minister Senzeni Zokwana called a media conference to rail against the court’s ruling and against Viking, which he criticised for approaching the court rather than appealing the allocation.
But in court documents, Viking claimed it had been forced to launch the legal action because fishing was due to start on January 1.
Zokwana accused the company of obstructing transformation and the emergence of new entrants into the fishing industry.
However, small-scale fishing representatives, who have largely been left out of the fishing quota system, said it appeared the department was intent on favouring a select few.
Pedro Garcia of the South African United Fishing Front accused Mentor and Moosa of using the ANC fishing desk as “a political tool for themselves”.
Andy Johnston, who helped the government draw up the new small-scale fishing policy, said factory workers needed to be given rights, not “ANC cronies”.
“It should be workers who get the fishing rights — people who actually get their hands wet,” Johnston said.
He said a person in a position of power should “forfeit the right to accept a fishing allocation for himself. Leadership requires the courage to make decisions that will benefit his members and not himself.”
Moosa scoffed at allegations that the process had been tainted by political interference.
“I have 70 ordinary fishermen, shareholders in the company that I have put forward. They stretch from Port Nolloth all along the coast,” he said.
However, two independent maritime sources said this week that Moosa appeared to be the sole listed shareholder.
Moosa said: “I am certainly an advocate of transformation. We take some of these fishermen and put them into a company, not using political contacts.
“If we had not scored enough [in the rights process] we wouldn’t have been there. Now we are being penalised.”
The Avril W has no infrastructure that equips it to fish for hake inshore
STRANDED: Harry Mentor says his boat, Avril W, is lying idle and costing him money