Molewa predicts ocean job bounty

SOUTH Africa has about 4 000 kilometres of coastline and if protected and properly managed the country could have about one million more jobs by 2032.

This emerged at a session of the World Economic Forum on Africa which took place in Durban this week.

Overfishing and dumping, however, posed major threats to the ocean economy – not just along the South African coastline, but along the entire coast of the continent.

Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa said the continent’s blue economy would improve for the better over the next 10 years, with better protection measures being implemented.

According to Molewa, the oceans economy had the potential to create around one million jobs by 2032 if it was managed properly.

Molewa was a panellist at a session on the blue economy where discussions focused on how to lessen and negate destructive practices affecting the world’s oceans.

She said “huge opportunities” existed and had been identified in the manufacturing and ocean transport sector.

“The fact that SA’s economy was not constructed with the focus on the shoreline did not stop us from identifying that shortfall,” Molewa said.

“Loading raw material and receiving incoming goods are some of the opportunities that exist for our country.

“The Port of Durban, Port Elizabeth and Richards Bay are developed through our industrialisation programme.

“We are doing fish breeding on our shorelines to ensure that we do not run the risk of certain species becoming extinct,” Molewa said on the sidelines of the session.

She added that drones, which were not expensive to operate, were being deployed to guard fishing activities.

She said that fishing licences were determined through legislation and scientific monitoring.

“We are on guard of our marine life through legislation and scientific monitoring.”

Herman Betten, session facilitator and global director: external affairs for Royal DSM, said the ocean was not managed very well in the African continent.

He said more than a billion people relied on fishing for survival in Africa.

“It takes six kilograms of fresh salmon to make one kilogram of salmon. Eight million tons of plastic are dumped into our ocean every year.

“About 400 dead zones in the ocean already exist.

“The more active we become in protecting the ocean, the mercury that we find in fish will be extracted from the ocean gradually,” Betten said.

He said illegal, unreported and smuggled tuna fish was another problem area for the ocean economy around the world.

Juliette Biao Koudenoukpo, director and Africa’s representative of the United Nations Environmental Programme (Unep), said she did not think that Africans had enough knowledge on oceans.

The important issue of marine litter was not receiving enough attention, she said.

“Heavy metal going into the rivers and into the sea is difficult to extract.

“The more toxic the waste, the more difficult it will be to extract,” she said. – ANA