Fisheries scandal deepens but department remains mum

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment has refused to respond to questions by The Star regarding the 2021/2022 Fishing Rights Allocation Process.

Billions of rand worth of fishing rights were awarded to South African companies on February 28.

A whistleblower claims that several companies nominated a South African registered trawler, Elke M, as the vessel they would use to catch their quota of fish, should they be awarded the licenses.

The Star reached out to the department and to Eyethu Fishing, who the whistleblower revealed as one of entities that had nominated Elke M as their vessel of choice.

The whistleblower also alleged that Eyethu was a front for Spanish fishing giant, Iberconsa, de facto controlling Eyethu through loan accounts it has in Eyethu.

But whistleblowers shouldn’t simply be believed and we afforded Elke M and the department an opportunity to answer to the allegations.

Eyethu failed to meet the deadline for a response and the department responded on February 22, that according to their information Elke M belongs to neither Eyethu nor Iberconsa, but to another South African company, Lwandlekazi Fishing.

However, the controversial Elke M is listed on the Iberconsa website as ‘part of their fleet in South Africa’. The department said that Iberconsa had no fishing licenses in South Africa.

On Eyethu’s website, Elke M features prominently as well.

After the Department announced that the licenses were awarded on 28 February 2022, The Star asked for the scoresheets.

The department failed to respond. We also asked what rights and licenses quotas, Elke M was awarded, how many entities had provided the department with Elke M as part of their fleet, and how many of the entities that provided Elke M as their vessel of choice were awarded licenses.

But the department did not to respond to these questions.

The whistleblower has since revealed that three other companies using Elke M as their vessel in the tender were awarded substantial fishing rights on Elke M. This disclosure by the whistleblower is being probed by our investigating team.

“The department will face a litany of litigation in the next few months. They awarded four hake deep sea trawl licenses, two KZN crustacean rights, a south coast rock lobster right and a current inshore hake license to companies that nominated Elke M as their vessel,” a source within the department said on condition of anonymity.

“Elke M cannot fish those rights if it had 100 days in their month. The Department knows that. This after you (The Star) engaged the department about the controversy around Elke M before they awarded the rights,” the source added.

In the meantime, the department has refused to handover their scoresheets to The Star, nor did it give reasons for keeping the contents of the scoresheets a secret at this stage.

This whilst successful bidders can go to sea and catch their allocated quotas and unsuccessful bidders can not approach the courts for relief, because they don’t have the scoresheets to see where the department may have slipped up, or unlawfully favoured the successful bidders. This is a developing story.