Who is going to patrol our marine resources after March?
Marine resources on South Africa's coastlines will be unprotected from the end of March.
This comes after the Fisheries Department failed to award a contract in time to man and maintain state-owned marine patrol vessels.
From the end of this month, it is unclear who will be doing the job. Media reports suggest that the current contractor, Smit Amandla, is in the process of scaling down their operations as their contract with the Department expires at the end of March.
Our coastlines simply cannot go unpatrolled given the immense potential for illegal activity and abuse of marine resources.
Today I will call for Parliament's Fisheries Committee to summon Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson and Director-General Langa Zita to explain the Department's interim plan as soon as possible.
Minister Joemat-Pettersson needs to take responsibility for this crisis. In November 2011 she announced that an R800 million tender had been awarded to politically-connected Sekunjalo Consortium to take over patrolling operations on South Africa's coastlines.
A subsidiary of Sekunjalo, Premier Fishing, has fishing rights on the South African coast. The contract would effectively have made Sekunjalo both player and referee over our marine resources.
Sekunjalo owns a 25% stake in Saab SA and is owned by Iqbal Surve, a frequent travel companion to Jacob Zuma on state business trips.
The DA acquired a forensic audit report which discovered bias in the bid adjudication process and noted a potential conflict of interest in the awarding of the contract. The contract has since been withdrawn on the back of persistent pressure from the DA.
How Sekunjalo won the contract in the first place is now going to be investigated both by the Public Protector (at the DA's request) and the Competition Commission.
Not only has the Fisheries Department landed itself in the middle of a corruption scandal through the awarding and subsequent withdrawal of the contract, it has also failed to ensure contingency plans are made to protect our coastlines.
The Minister needs to deal with the looming crisis on our coastlines before our unprotected waters become a playground for criminals looking to profit from the country's precious marine resources.
Statement issued by Pieter van Dalen MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, March 18 2012
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