Chairperson, I was appointed to this portfolio committee at the beginning of the year. I have a keen interest in fishing and practically grew up at the sea. My uncle, Oom Bennet Uys, was also a fisherman from a young age. He was a humble, hardworking, poor fisherman. I sat for many hours listening to his fishermen stories of legends that sailed the sea. I was told that in those days there was an abundance of fish, but you still had to work hard every good seafaring day to put food on the table.
So, why do I tell you this story? The simple truth is that there are a lot of Oom Bennets out there whose livelihoods are being threatened by a department whose leaders do not know what they are doing.
Madam Minister, your leadership of this department has a significant impact on the future of poor fishing communities. You cannot buy your credibility back by handing out T-shirts emblazoned with Fisheries department logos. Neither can you win back their loyalty by asserting that you will, in Robin Hood-like glory, steal quotas from the big five fishing companies and give them to the communities.
We are here today to debate the Budget Vote of the Fisheries department, and I must tell you that I am very concerned about the state of your department.
This week we interrogated the strategic plans of the Marine Living Resources Fund and the Marine and Coastal Management Branch. Lacking entirely in both these documents was any reference to the National Development Plan - the same plan that the hon chairperson was talking about. When I read the Small-Scale Fishing Policy, I noted the same omission and that the policy even contradicts the National Development Plan in places.
All departments' strategic plans and policies should take their cue from the National Development Plan, given its emphasis on poverty alleviation and virtuous economic growth. The National Development Plan identifies Fisheries as a strategic economic sector with growth potential, especially in areas of small enterprise development.
The document also recognises that large-scale industrial fisheries employ more than 27 000 people and that these sectors offer employment conditions that are better than most other economic sectors. This truth must be quite hard for you to swallow, Minister, given your obsession with transforming the fishing industry.
Apparently, the 66% black ownership levels already attained and achieved are not black enough for you, even though the National Development Plan states that the sector is black-empowered. [Interjections.] Importantly, the National Development Plan emphasises that quotas cannot be allocated in a way that threatens compliance and sustainability. The Small-Scale Fishing Policy, on the other hand, is ideologically moribund and devoid of any understanding of the economics of the industry. It is therefore incapable of delivering the fruits of poverty alleviation that it promised. As the National Development Plan rightly points out, small-scale fishing should be encouraged, but it is not the answer to alleviating unemployment. The policy emphasis should be on the creation of small enterprises and protecting fishing stocks so that responsible firms can profit sustainably and thereby employ sustainably.
Finally, the National Development Plan states that unrealistic expectations have been created by promising communities fishing rights. Short-term political expedience will backfire in the long run, hon Phaliso.
How is it possible that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the Minister are unaware of the National Development Plan and its analysis? If government departments such as Fisheries have already elected to ignore the National Development Plan, we can rest assured that this rather grand vision for 2030 will never be worth more than the paper it is written on. [Interjections.]
But the problem with this year's Budget Vote reaches beyond ignorance of the National Development Plan and enters even more sinister waters. It states as fact that the Marine Living Resources Fund receives, as a supplement to revenue, the proceeds of the sale of confiscated fish and fish product, including abalone. This brings me to the very serious matter of abalone poaching and this department's inability to stop this phenomenon.
The question has been raised as to whether there is a conflict of interest at play. It was admitted by the director-general and the Minister at a portfolio committee meeting that at some stage it would have to be stopped, but for now it will be allowed to continue as they don't have anything in place to substitute the foregone revenue.
I ask you, Minister, with tears in my eyes: How is it possible to budget for an income that you will derive from an illegal activity when you are the entity responsible for policing that same activity? You have now created this perverse incentive to leave the poacher in the water, instead of preventing the extraction of this near-extinct species. [Interjections.] Rather, you wait until enough has been poached to extract the targeted income from the sale of confiscated abalone. The problem of conflicting interests appears to be a trend in your department, Madam Minister.
Minister, you recently announced the institution of an independent committee of inquiry at a press conference on 21 March this year, which was a public holiday. You undertook to investigate internally the alleged corruption and irregularity in awarding the tender for the maintenance, manning and operation of the department's marine patrol and research fleets. The contract was prematurely awarded to the politically connected Sekunjalo Consortium - whose subsidiary, Premier Fishing, owns extensive fishing quotas - and then withdrawn under pressure from the DA and others. This committee should have started their work by early April of this year, but we have yet to see anything concrete happening. [Interjections.]
Minister, you seem to believe that your intention to institute an inquiry exonerates you and your department from answering questions. Please let me assure you that this is not how things work in a democracy, nor will we allow them to operate in such a manner. Finally, I received a reply from the Minister last week, which indicates that the findings of a 2008 report on the 12 small-scale fishing harbours have yet to be implemented. The report was commissioned at a whopping cost to the taxpayer of R4,8 million. It found evidence of gross mismanagement in every respect, and the best the department can tell me is that it has established an interdepartmental task team that will establish timeframes to implement the recommendations. [Interjections.] Oh!
I see that Mr Abram is not speaking today. He is very outspoken in the committee. [Interjections.] May I take the liberty of quoting him? If he was speaking, he would say that this dysfunctional department with all the actors - alluding to all the acting positions - is a disgrace to this government and to the poor fishing communities out there. [Interjections.] The sustainable use of our fishing resources has the potential to contribute to economic growth and job creation ...