I think we must
remember that when we are talking about this Fourth Industrial Revolution, there have been revolutions before. The first one, which was the industrialisation, that was a revolution on its own, which was shifting from the hand to a number of other things, steam power and so on. Then there was also a second revolution, which started talking about the issue of mechanisation and so on and so on. They talked about the third revolution. So, this shift is always going to be there. But what is important is, we need to talk about the upskilling, the
retraining and the training of the workers. What we must accept is that we can't stop the technological changes.
So, today you are talking about the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is linked to digitisation, automation, you can mention all the other things. But the reality is, we will have to prepare the workers. I think the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy was talking about a just transition. As long as we ensure that that revolution is also human centred, we are able to skill our people so that they are able to participate into that.
We must accept that we have to invest in our people. For now, you know that the Minister of Finance will tell you that our unemployment is mainly structural linked to the issue of the skills, which means; we have to double our efforts in terms of skilling the people, giving them the basic skills, but also giving them the modern skills to face the challenges of the new technologies and so on. Thank you.
Question 179:
The MINISTER OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS, FORESTRY AND
FISHERIES: Hon Modise, the department is in the process of rolling out a small-scale fisheries sector programme whereby a total of over 10 000 individuals from traditional fishing communities along the coastline of South Africa are currently being granted access to marine resources for commercial and food security purposes through a cooperative model.
This right of access is for duration of 15 years. The details of this programme are as follows; in 2018 the department allocated the first 15 years small-scale fishing rights to two co-ops in the Northern Cape. On 19 October 2019, I handed over 15-year fishing rights to seven small-scale co- operatives in the Ugu District Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal with 467 declared small- scale fisherpeople who stand to benefit directly from the access to marine resources for commercial and food security purposes. This handover of fishing rights marks the beginning of small-scale rights allocations in KwaZulu-Natal that will see fishing rights granted to over 36 co-operatives involving 2 184 individual fisherpeople.
Next month in the Eastern Cape, small-scale fishing co- operatives will be granted small-scale rights. There are 75 cooperatives involved involving 5 335 individuals. In the Western Cape, small-scale fishing cooperatives have been registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission and they will be assisted to receive their fishing rights by December 2019.
With the introduction of this small-scale fisheries sector, the department will provide the necessary support to these fishing cooperatives as well as allocating fishing rights this support includes ensuring that the co-operatives are sustainable and looking for ways to improve the value chain and access to markets. Thank you very much.