Fishermen left high and dry by bungle over fishing rights

Claimants who say they were wrongly denied quotas are now taking the government to the Human Rights Commission

FREAK waves, ghost ships and “submarine sharks” — Kalk Bay fisherman Naaim Jacobs thought he’d seen it all in the lonely hours on the far side of the horizon.

But the mystery that led to his undoing was waiting for him on land, in the form of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Not only has the department stopped him fishing, it “lost” the scoresheet of his fishing right application, only to find it again nearly two years later. When Jacobs finally saw it, he realised he had easily qualified for a linefish fishing right.

For two years he has been sitting without a right, while some successful rights holders do not even live at the coast and have full-time jobs in other industries.

Now Jacobs is fighting back. He and a fellow skipper have lodged a complaint against senior fisheries officials with the Human Rights Commission. They say it is their last resort after numerous complaints fell on deaf ears.

In the interim he has literally been chased off the sea despite being skipper of one of Kalk Bay’s best-known boats. It services Kalky’s restaurant, a popular tourist destination at the historic harbour.

“We are the guys who keep this harbour going, and yet there’s no place for us in the system,” Jacobs told the Sunday Times this week. “Two years down the line and we’ve been suffering.”

In documents submitted to the HRC, Jacobs said he visited the head office of the Department NO REPLY: Naaim Jacobs, 37, a traditional line fisherman, was barred from fishing of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in Cape Town to fetch his scoresheet but was told it could not be found.

When it eventually surfaced, it showed he easily qualified for a fishing right. “I believe that they withheld the scoresheet on purpose from me and I want the right allocated and action taken against them,” Jacob said in his complaint.

His case is one of several anomalies in piles of fisheries scoresheets which have raised the ire of people controversially excluded from the industry in the 2013 fishing rights application process.

The flawed process prompted various investigations — including one by the Hawks — and high-court action by the country’s line-fish association.

Despite findings that scoring was manipulated due to political interference, officials responsible still hold key management positions in the department.

Scoresheets seen by the Sunday Times reveal several blatant contraventions by fisheries officials of their own policies. These included line-fish rights being granted to applicants in the off-shore commercial sectors (precluded by the policy), that applicants had full-time employment elsewhere (also precluded), or had not submitted key information, such as boat certification.

Successful candidates included a husband and wife from the Cape Agulhas area. The husband has a commercial right in another fishery and his wife works full-time for a municipality. Theirs was one of several questionable allocations that are now back in the spotlight as scoresheets become available.

The issue of undeserving quota holders was addressed last week by Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana at a press briefing in parliament. Zokwana said the department would if necessary disqualify rights holders and readmit others found to be deserving.

I believe that they withheld the scoresheet on purpose from me

South African Commercial Line Fish Association chairman Wally Croome said the “missing” scoresheets confirmed the fishermen’s perception that the department had “screwed up” the 2013 rights process.

“The thing that is hard to swallow is that the people responsible are sitting earning a massive salary and just laughing at everybody,” Croome said.

The Sunday Times was unable to reach former deputy director-general Desmond Stevens, who was redeployed within the department after overseeing the 2013 rights allocation. The department did not respond to queries about the missing scoresheets.