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'Criminalized and marginalized,' South Africa fishers call on Ramaphosa to secure their right to food and livelihood
"Criminalized and marginalized" despite a 24-year-old post-apartheid Constitution that enshrines the right of access to sufficient food and guarantees social justice and equality for all, thousands of small-scale fishers called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to secure their right to food and sustainable livelihood as South Africa celebrated Human Rights Day on March 21.
"(W)e want to bring to your attention that tens of thousands of coastal and inland fishers and their families are still denied access to marine and freshwater resources for their livelihood and struggle to realise their human right to food and related human rights," Masifundise Development Trust Director Naseegh Jaffer told President Ramaphosa in an open letter.
The Cape Town-based Masifundise, founded in 1980, facilitates the mobilization and organization of fishing communities at the grassroots level. It is a member of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples, which is part of the Global Network for the Right to Food and Nutrition.
The organization wrote to Mr. Ramaphosa on behalf of Coastal Links South Africa, a community-based organisation representing over 5,000 members of small-scale coastal and inland fishing communities in the regions of Vanderkloof Dam, Gariep Dam, and Jozini Dam.
Implementation of fisheries policy 'deeply flawed'
Masifundise's Jaffer told the chief executive that despite a pro-people Charter and fishing policies that cater to the interests and welfare of small-scale fishers, hurdles in their implementation have prevented fishers from exercising their right to resources that will ensure their food and livelihood needs.
Jaffer cited the problematic enforcement of the Small-Scale Fisheries Policy (SSFP), which was adopted in 2012 to ensure that small fishers -- whose rights were not acknowledged under the Marine Living Resources Act, 18 of 1998 and apartheid era fisheries policies -- will be recognized and have equal access to marine resources.
He said the SSFP's implementation "is deeply flawed" because "the verification process put in place failed to include many bona fide small-scale fishers," thereby prompting South Africa Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy to approach the high court to have the process reviewed and re-done in Western Cape.
Fishers are 'marginalized, criminalized'
Masifundise also told President Ramaphosa that "inland fishing communities continue to be marginalized and criminalized."
This is because the National Freshwater (Inland) Wild Capture Fisheries Policy Framework for South Africa that acknowledges and promotes the activities of inland small-scale fishers has not yet been finalized and thus makes fishing for food and livelihoods in lakes, rivers and dams "unrecognized."
Another problem, according to Masifundise, is the expansion of marine protected areas in South Africa that did not only limit the access of small-scale fishers to their traditional fishing grounds but also made them "face violence and brutality at the hands of conservation authorities and other law enforcements."
Masifundise cited the killing of Celimpilo Mdluli inside a vast protected area in KwaZulu-Natal Province as among the consequences of the state's failure to acknowledge the rights of small fishers.
The 30-year-old Mdluli, who was from a small fishing community cooperative in Nibela, was fishing at the St. Lucia Lake in iSimangaliso Wetland Park when rangers gunned him down on September 16, 2020.
Blue economy also threatens small fishers
South Africa's blue growth development plan called Operation Phakisa, which focuses on large investments such as in energy, ports, tourism, and aquaculture, was likewise criticized by Masifundise. It said the economic strategy "poses a threat to small-scale fishing communities, the fisheries resources, and coastal and inland water bodies."
"While framed as sustainable development to boost the economy and combat poverty, unemployment, and inequality, in reality, extractive activities across the country’s coastline...hinder fishing practices as transnational mining companies destroy the coastline and marine ecosystems," Masifundise's Jaffer told President Ramaphosa in the letter.
A crisis compounded by Covid-19, climate woes
What makes the situation of fishers more difficult are the "converging food, economic, and health crisis caused by Covid-19, which is having a major impact on South Africa’s rural communities, and the climate crisis that continues to worsen the working conditions in which fishing communities operate," according to Masifundise.
The group told President Ramaphosa that all the hardships being endured by small-scale fishers are tantamount to "a national crisis (that) must be solved immediately" by adhering to the pertinent provisions in the 1996 Constitution and pro-small fisher laws and policies.
Masifundise also urged the government to honor the international treaties and accords that uphold the rights of small-scale fishers and were ratified by South Africa. These include the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas; and the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
It likewise enjoined President Ramaphosa and his administration to take the following steps to ensure the protection and promotion of the rights of inland and coastal small-scale fishers:
1) Include bona fide fishers, including women and youth, in the programs being implemented under the Small-scale Fisheries Policy
2) Include bona fide fishers in the consultation and decision-making processes at the local and national levels
3) Implement a full and meaningful cooperative training process that can support fishers in the management of their cooperatives
4) Allocate an economically viable basket of species that SSF entities can fully and directly harvest, using their traditional and customary knowledge and practices
5) Revisit the demarcation of fishing zones and areas, including access to marine protected areas, in recognition of small-scale fishers’ human and customary rights
6) Support the development of localized markets for small-scale fisheries products
7) Address the criminalization and insecure tenure of inland fishing communities while the Inland Fisheries Policy is being finalized for implementation
Read the full letter of Masifundise Development Trust Director Naseegh Jaffer to President Cyril Ramaphosa below.
21 March 2021
For Attention:President Cyril Ramaphosa
Presidency of the Republic of South Africa
presidentrsa@presidency.gov.za
RE: Support towards the realization of Human Rights of South Africa Small-Scale Fishing Communities
Dear President Cyril Ramaphosa,
On this Human Rights Day, as we commemorate the adoption of our 1996 Constitution, which recognizes and protects the human rights of all people in our country, we want to bring to your attention that tens of thousands of coastal and inland fishers and their families are still denied access to marine and freshwater resources for their livelihood and struggle to realise their human right to food and related human rights.
We are writing to you on behalf of Coastal Links South Africa, a community-based organisation representing more than five thousand members of small-scale fishing communities along the coast, and representatives of inland fishing communities in the regions of Vanderkloof Dam, Gariep Dam and Jozini Dam.
The implementation of the Small-scale Fisheries Policy, which was developed to recognize small-scale fisheries, is deeply flawed. The verification process put in place failed to include many bona fide small-scale fishers. This prompted Minister Creecy to approach the Western Cape High Court to have the process reviewed and re-done in the Western Cape.
The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (DEFF) took a top-down approach registering small-scale fisheries cooperatives and imposing its preferred constitution on it. In this regard the lack of consultation and the limited training offered leaves the cooperative unable to function properly.
At the same time, the National Freshwater (Inland) Wild Capture Fisheries Policy Framework for South Africa recognizes and promotes the activities of inland small-scale fishers, but the policy is yet to be finalized, and fishing for food and livelihoods in lakes, rivers and dams remains unrecognized. As a result, inland fishing communities continue to be marginalized and criminalized.
Furthermore, the expansion of the Blue Economy through the promotion of Operation Phakisa poses a threat to small-scale fishing communities, the fisheries resources, and coastal and inland water bodies. While framed as sustainable development to boost the economy and combat poverty, unemployment, and inequality, in reality, extractive activities across the country’s coastline continue actually hinders fishing practices as transnational mining companies destroy the coastline and marine ecosystems. And the expansion of Marine Protected Areas in other parts of the country is limiting small-scale fishers’ access to their traditional fishing grounds.
The lack of recognition of inland and coastal communities’ customary rights to marine resources has contributed to many challenges: small-scale fishers continue to be prohibited from entering their traditional fishing grounds and face violence and brutality at the hands of conservation authorities and other law enforcements, as in the case of the murder of Celimpilo Mdluli, a fisher from the small scale fishing community co-operative in Nibela, near St. Lucia on 16th September 2020.
For small-scale fishing communities, this is a national crisis which must be solved immediately. Small-scale fishers are not are not able to sustain their livelihoods and their ability to exercise their fundamental human rights is severely affected.
This is happening in the context of the converging food, economic, and health crisis caused by Covid-19, which is having a major impact on South Africa’s rural communities, and the climate crisis that continues to worsen the working conditions in which fishing communities operate. South Africa is a State Party to two international covenants – on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), to which the human right to food (Art.11) and other related human rights of small-scale fishers violated are enshrined.
South Africa also voted in favour of the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) by the UN General Assembly in 2018. This Declaration includes fishers as UNDROP’s rights’ holders.
It also establishes states obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, including fishers (Art.2.1) and stipulates that “States shall take all necessary measures to ensure that non-State actors that they are in a position to regulate, such as … transnational corporations and other business enterprises, respect and strengthen the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas.”
Among the rights recognized in the UNDROP and application here are i.a the right to land and other natural resources (Art.5), the right to food (Art. 15), the right to an adequate standard of living (Art.16), the right to the recognition and protection of the natural commons and their related systems of collective use and management (art.17), the right to safe and clean water and sanitation, including water for fishing (Art. 21.2). UNDROP also recognizes the rights of its rights holders, including fishers, to adequate training (Art.25).
Notwithstanding the non-binding nature of the UNDROP, according to international law, States shall apply it in good faith and can take this as a guide for the adequate implementation of the human rights treaties states have ratified, including the CESCR and CCPR.
Similarly, at the international level, Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines (para 5.4.) adopted by FAO (to which South Africa is a member) also demands states to “recognize, respect and protect all forms of legitimate tenure rights, taking into account, where appropriate, customary rights to aquatic resources and land and small-scale fishing areas enjoyed by small-scale fishing communities.”
Equally, it is important to reaffirm that the CESCR, CCPR and UNDROP establish the obligation of non-discrimination (also a guiding principle for the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines) which is fully applicable to bona fide fishers and others that have not been included in the above-mentioned Small-scale fisheries Policy implementation.
At national level, the right to food is also explicitly recognized in Section 27(1)(b) and (2) of the South Africa Constitution, thus obliged to respect, protect, and fulfil the right to food of its population, particularly of small-scale fishers and their families.
Furthermore, the Amended Marine Living Resources Act includes, in Section 2 (m) of the principal Act, the need to recognise approaches to fisheries management, which contributes towards food security, socio-economic development, and the alleviation of poverty.
In line with the above, we call on you and your government to prioritise the protection and promotion of inland and coastal small-scale fishers’ human rights and to address the following:
• Inclusion of bona-fide fishers (including women and youth) who were left out of the Small-scale Fisheries Policy implementation process.
• The lack of implementation of co-management, inclusion and consultation of bonafide fishers in decision-making processes at local and national level.
• Lack of full and meaningful cooperative training process that can support fishers in the management of their cooperatives.
• Allocation of an economically viable basket of species that SSF entities can fully and directly harvest, using their traditional and customary knowledge and practice.
• Revisiting the demarcation of fishing zones and areas, including access to marine protected areas, in recognition of small-scale fishers’ human and customary rights.
• Support the development of localized markets for small-scale fisheries products.
• Taking steps to address the criminalization and insecure tenure of inland fishing communities while the Inland Fisheries Policy is finalized and implemented.
We remain committed to engage with your government in finding appropriate solutions to these difficult challenges and to be part of the solution to this national crisis for small-scale fisheries.
Finally, we ask you for leadership and direction to ensure that the human rights of small-scale fishing communities are fully recognized and realized.
Yours Faithfully,
Naseegh Jaffer
Director of Masifundise Development Trust