Minister leaps to defence of relocation bid

MINISTER of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Tina Joemat-pettersson has taken issue with the DA for its criticism of her plan to relocate the fisheries branch to Pretoria.

The ministry has noted with “shock and dismay” a statement by the DA in response to her call to “foster unity in my department”, she said.

On Tuesday, Joemat-pettersson told the agriculture, forestry and fisheries portfolio committee that the department’s fisheries branch – known as Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) – continued to work as an “island from the main body”.

This created duplications with the work of the head office.

It also painted a picture of MCM being an independent body that was not governed by her department.

She said that, as it currently stood, MCM was biased towards the Western Cape, and mainly big business, over the rest of the country and the small fisherfolk.

In a statement on Wednesday, DA spokesman Pieter van Dalen said Joemat-pettersson had “lost the plot”.

“In her infinite wisdom”, she had decided that the best way to turn around the

‘All national departments are headquartered in Pretoria’

performance of the MCM management unit was to relocate it to Pretoria from Cape Town, where it was based.

“Exactly how taking a coastal management unit away from the coast will help is difficult to fathom.

“Talk about a fish out of water,” Van Dalen said.

“Do we need to remind Minister Joemat-pettersson that 80 percent of commercial fishing activity takes place in the coastal region of the Western Cape?” he said.

“Does she expect fishermen to travel to Pretoria each time they have to apply for a permit?”

Van Dalen asked what would happen to the 7 000 MCM staff who were at present residing in Cape Town.

“This has clearly not been thought through properly,” he said.

The minister responded that Van Dalen had chosen to ignore her words “in their entirety”, and said that he had chosen to focus only on the call to relocate MCM from Pretoria to Cape Town.

Van Dalen’s claim that 80 percent of commercial fishing activity took place in the coastal region of the Western Cape was both untrue and unsustainable.

“Yes, historically the previous government concentrated commercial fishing in the Western Cape and created this artificial strength,” she said.

In the process, KwazuluNatal and the Eastern Cape were under-developed and the Northern Cape completely ignored.

If the playing field was levelled and fisheries spread across the country, the Western Cape would represent far less than 80 percent of commercial farming.

It was also important to note that the fishing stocks were depleted in the Western Cape and resources were being spread to other parts of the country, including in the rivers for aquaculture.

“All national departments are headquartered in Pretoria.

“This does not mean there is no provincial, regional and local representation.

“This should also hold for fisheries and their representation should spread beyond only the Western Cape,” she said.