Progress made in fishing rights allocation

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Pretoria - The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) has distributed 16 744 application forms in the 2015/16 Fishing Rights Allocation Process (FRAP).

“In terms of the FRAP 2015/2016 process, the department distributed 16 744 application forms for the nine fishing sectors, as well as Fish Processing Establishments sector, where rights expired at various times during the course of 2015 and 2016.  These application forms were distributed between 23 November 2015 and 11 December 2015 in all nine provinces,” said DAFF on Friday.

Giving an update on the FRAP, the department said it embarked on a receipting process (collection of completed application forms), a phase that took place between 1 February 2016 and 26 February 2016 in all provinces.

“A total of 5 597 completed application forms were receipted by the department and have also been independently audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

“These application forms are in the process of being captured and verified by dedicated departmental officials, while validation of the captured information is conducted by another independent auditing firm, Business Innovations Group,” said the department.

It is anticipated that the assessment teams will finalise the allocations per sector in May and June 2016 and that preliminary lists will be made public towards the end of June 2016, after which the Minister will open the appeals process. 

The department aims to conclude the appeal process by 31 August 2016.

Meanwhile, the department in March called on members of coastal fishing communities to submit their expression of interest (EoI) to be verified and registered as small-scale fishers as the deadline to do so looms.

The department will visit coastal communities in the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal until June so as to assist residents with the fisher registration and verification process. – SAnews.gov.za