Government is amending legislation that will see small-scale fisheries formalised into cooperatives for the first time in South Africa.
The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), led by Minister Senzeni Zokwana, has also initiated a process of granting access to sustainable marine resources and facilitating a developmental support program to small-scale fishers.
In a statement, the department said it has invested resources by working with over 300 communities in the four coastal provinces to facilitate the recognition of small-scale fishers and small-scale fishing communities.
“DAFF also provided training, assisted with mobilisation of declared small-scale fishers into cooperatives and in the Northern Cape, assisted the registered cooperatives to apply for 15-year small-scale fishing rights,” the department said.
In the Northern Cape, the Minister has declared 103 individuals small-scale fishers.
Zokwana has also formally declared two communities as small-scale fishing communities in terms of the Marine Living Resources Act and its regulations.
“The two small-scale fishing communities have received basic training on cooperatives and they have been assisted to register cooperatives for the purpose of applying for 15-year fishing rights,” DAFF said.
The department has since received the rights applications for these two cooperatives from Port Nolloth and Hondeklipbaai.
Zokwana will on Friday, 28 September launch the cooperatives at an event at the Port Nolloth town hall in the Northern Cape. – SAnews.gov.za
