New policy highlights plight of KZN fisherfolk
Cast Out: the Systematic Exclusion of the KwaZulu-Natal Subsistence Fishers from the Fishing Rights Regime in South Africa was recently launched.
THE South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) and the KZN Subsistence Fisherfolk Forum launched Cast Out: The Systematic Exclusion of the KwaZulu-Natal Subsistence Fishers from the Fishing Rights Regime in South Africa last week.
The policy brief, written by researchers Jackie Sunde and Kira Erwin for the SDCEA and KZN Subsistence Fisherfolk Forum 2020 gives the background of the plight of fisherfolk in the province.
On 26 March 2020 the President of South Africa announced that South Africa will go into a nationwide lockdown like many countries across the world to prevent the rapid spread of Covid-19.
Therefore, only essential workers could work.
This led to outcry from the poor of South Africa who live from hand to mouth.
The Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries approached the National Command Council and commercial fishing and small-scale fishing were declared ‘emergency services’, exempting these fishers from sections of the lockdown regulations and enabling these fisheries sectors to continue to fish.
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However, because the subsistence fishers of KZN do not fall under the small scale fishers cooperative, they are not recognised as small scale/subsistence fishers, rather as recreational fishers and therefore could not fish.
For the thousands of fishers who have been excluded from the small scale fisher’s cooperatives in the province, the lockdown level 5 regulations were a harsh blow.
These fishers once again found themselves cast out, at sea. Unable to fish to feed their families, many were desperate.
“The Covid-19 lockdown has put a spotlight on the exclusion of thousands of fishers. It has exposed the continuation of a racist, exclusionary approach to subsistence fishers in KwaZulu-Natal that denies their Constitutional right to food security, to their culture and to redress for past injustices,” said Sherelee Odayar from SDCEA.
SDCEA decided to document the discussions of Covid-19 and the injustices of the past on fishers of the province.
Sunde and Erwin compiled the document, which highlights the division and exclusion of the existing fishing policies, and makes recommendations for a policy review.
A copy of the full document is available at www.sdcea.co.za.
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