SUPPLEMENTARY WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS ON THE NATIONAL PORTS AUTHORITY BILL AND THE NPA’S ROLE IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN FISHING INDUSTRY

Introduction

The members of SADSTIA, POCTFIA and SECIFA, organisations representing the deep sea trawl fishing industry, as well as fishing industry leaseholders in the port of Cape Town, tabled written submissions before the Portfolio Committee on Transport on 24 June 2003. The purpose of these supplementary submissions is to highlight the distinct interests of the fishing industry as opposed to other commercial interests in the ports in support of our legal contentions. This submission should be read together with the earlier submissions.

We deal below with: -

FISHING IN PORTS

Fishing stands aside from mainstream port activities. It is a primary food industry and not a maritime transport or related support activity. But, occurring as it does in the marine environment it uses the transport infrastructure. In common with all maritime activities it can only function by locating its terrestrial links in protected waters at the land/sea interface. The indispensable requirements for putting fleets of fishing vessels to sea and landing the catch must take place in harbours and ports and as will be explained, regional fishing harbours cannot suffice at least for the larger class of fishing vessels. In this sense fishing can be said to occupy a relatively modest but nonetheless special niche within our ports.

The South African Fishing Industry falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, (DEA&T) which administers the Marine Living Resources Act of 1998. The Act regulates all aspects of commercial fishing and lays strong emphasis on issues of transformation and Black Economic Empowerment. It does so largely through the various provisions governing the allocation of fishing rights. The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has issued 2550 access rights in terms of the Marine Living Resources. More than 60% of the rights are majority owned and/or managed by historically disadvantaged individuals.

The provision of facilities and administration of nine proclaimed fishing harbours also falls within DEA&T jurisdiction and the vast majority of South Africa’s smaller commercial fishing hulls are thus served. Despite the excellent fishing facilities provided by the DEA&T, these facilities are not deep enough to accommodate deep sea fishing trawlers and therefore a substantial part of the South African fishing industry is located in ports and not fishing harbours.

Notwithstanding the fact that a sizeable majority of fishing boats use the proclaimed fishing harbours, South African ports (Saldanha included) account for about 50% of the labour force and over 60% by value of South African fishing output. The fishing industry contributes at least R3000 million to the South African GDP per annum. The relative importance of the ports is explained by the relative capital intensity of that section of the fishing industry that must rely on them. The vessels are site bound to precisely those deeper water facilities that cannot be offered by the DEA&T with the result that the South African fishing industry is today deeply reliant on the ports under NPA jurisdiction.

The following table conveys some idea of the size and scope of domestic fishing activities in six out of the seven ports of the RSA.

Port

Employment

Number of vessels

Value of vessels

Durban

323

12

R 84,650,000

East London

235

7

R 13,710,000

Port Elizabeth

2752

82

R 218,910,000

Mossel Bay

1516

68

R 145,760,000

Cape Town

6261

181

R 2,205,450,000

Saldanha

1132

40

R 1,010,266,500

TOTAL

390

R 3,678,746,500

Small craft excluded

The capitalised value of leasehold property held by the industry is estimated to be R2 600 million, with a further R260 million having been invested in the upgrading of existing NPA facilities.

 

SITE BOUND NATURE OF THE FISHING INDUSTRY

By its nature the industry is site-bound in that it has to carry out extensive production facilities at the land edge. Not only is the industry bound in this way, but, for the reasons set out below, it is also largely confined to ports, rather than harbours.

Historical – Steel hulled fishing vessels located in South African ports even before the first fishing harbours were built. The records show continuous commercial fishing operations from 106 years ago in the case of Mossel Bay. Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban have been used by deep-sea trawlers since shortly after 1900 and East London since the 1920’s. The various fishing companies developed in the port environment and have always moulded and conducted their business accordingly.

Geographical: the South African coast is uniquely hostile in terms of natural protection. With each significant harbour structure being separated by a full 222 km, South Africa can be said to be the world’s least "harboured" country. These structures are far from evenly distributed with 11 (out of a total of 16) being in the Western Cape. It is physically impossible to conduct fishing activities outside the Western Cape without recourse to NPA ports.

Shortage of Fishing Facilities in Proclaimed Harbours: The aforementioned eight fishing harbours not only fail to provide meaningful protection for ocean going craft but unfortunately they are badly congested and also shared by recreational and tourism users. It is generally accepted that no more facilities of this kind will be provided for the foreseeable future. In addition about 85% of all South Africa’s commercial fish resources are harvested from Western Cape waters so even if the region seems better served on the face of it, it simply doesn’t have enough harbourage to harvest the abundance of fish.

Technical: the fishing harbours are of a relatively shallow depth and thus unsuitable for fleets of vessels greater than 30 m length or 4 metres draft. Deep-sea trawlers and other steel hulled fishing ships, being from 40 to 90 metres long and needing more than five metres draft have berthed in and conducted their business within South Africa’s commercial ports for over 100 years without any alternative.

Surplus Capacity: while there was no space in fishing harbours, the ports actually had space to spare. An undesirable effect of containerisation during the 1970’s was redundancy of substantial portions of the conventional ports. Deterioration and dilapidation set in rapidly if only through lack of use. The fishing industry constituted the Port Authorities’ first recourse for fighting the growing squalor, while obtaining otherwise unobtainable revenue). Important players in the fishing industry were encouraged to take up long term leases. All but one of the leases entered into by our members were entered into in the post-1994 era as set out more fully in our earlier submission and especially in Cape Town, the fishing industry contributed to the overall redevelopment and upgrade of the port.

Quayside activity: The business of putting fleets of large deep-sea fishing vessels to sea comprises a comprehensive variety of "in-house" activities ranging from ship repair to the warehousing of finished product. The deep-sea fishing business is also, in the nature of things, completely site bound in that these activities must occur at or close to a quayside. Consequently the commercial survival of many of the most significant fishing enterprises necessarily entails the leasing of substantial fixed property within port confines. The statement is particularly, but by no means exclusively, true of the ports of Cape Town, Mossel Bay and Saldanha.

A glance at the permitted activity for V&A Waterfront lessees within the Port of Cape Town conveys some idea of how radically the needs of the fishing industry differ from other port clients. The conventional non-shipping port user normally provides a single maritime service whereas the average fishing enterprise conducts multiple activities.

Limited quay space – see also the comments under the heading below.

 

MULTIPLICITY OF QUAYSIDE ACTIVITIES AND PROPOSED LICENSING PROVISIONS

Fishing companies are allocated very limited quay space in ports which increases the number of activities that are site bound due to time constraints. The fleet of a large deep sea trawling concern cannot be docked at the same time. The boats therefore dock for a very limited period of time, during which they have to be offloaded, refuelled, stocked with ice, food etc. A boat must be ready to go out to sea before the next boat that needs that quay space, docks. We have identified 29 such activities which are routinely conducted by fleet operators in the fishing business. In terms of the proposed legislation, it could well mean that a further 29 licences may have to be obtained by each fishing concern.

CONCLUSION

It is primarily for these reasons that the fishing industry is uniquely located within ports. We urge you to consider giving a special dispensation to the industry in the provisions of the NPA Bill dealing with leases and licenses so as to take cognisance of the industry’s concerns, since the fishing industry has no other sphere in which to conduct its operations. We make specific suggestions in this regard in our earlier submission and in the attached document which summarises our proposals.