... [Inaudible.] ... Chairperson. Hon Minister, coming from the Western Cape - also not from the DA - and also from the Overberg region where abalone poaching has become such a thing where people only look at the high level of poaching; however, in these communities small fishermen who don't have another source of income are also doing it to put food on the table.
Now, the small-scale fishermen ... I fully agree with the high level plans of the department. However, the small-scale fishermen that don't have anything to put on the table ... I think ... Minister, if you can maybe just tell us how the small-scale policy ... the implementation of the small- scale policy in the industry, will also assist the small-scale fishermen whose eyes were also on poaching. How will that assist the department to, on a low level, scale down abalone poaching? Thank you.
The MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENT, FORESTRY AND FISHERIES: Through you,
hon Chairperson, I think that is a very important question. I explained to the hon member in a previous question that we are in the process of starting to give out 15-year rights to small-scale fisherpersons. I think what we need to understand is that these small-scale fishing people have never had legitimate legal rights and the consequence of that is that when people can't get through the front door they are going to climb through the windows. I think that many activities which are regarded as so-called poaching can be the activities of individuals who legitimately need to feed their families and who legitimately need to be creating a livelihood for themselves. That is why over the last four months we have prioritised the sorting out of the issue of rights for small-scale
fishing people. Unless we do that, we will never solve the problem of so- called poaching in Western Cape communities.
There is a basket of species that we are putting on the table for small- scale fishing people. It includes finfish, oysters, mussels, octopus, prawns, limpets, abalone and lobster, and I think the intention is to try and give individuals a legitimate way of feeding their families. However, we are also organising these small fishing communities into co-operatives and the idea is that, through their involvement in these co-operatives, they should also be able to create a commercial livelihood for people who are members of the co- operative. Until we do that, we are never going to get a proper handle on this thing called poaching.