Environmental Engineering Reference
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background of hake quota allocations in the context of apartheid and post-apartheid
politics. The history of the hake trawl fishery under apartheid is one of systematic
exclusion of 'blacks' from access to fishing quotas, licenses and harbours (in this
chapter, the term 'black' is used as defined in South Africa's 'Broad Based Black
Economic Empowerment Act' - 'a generic term that means Africans, Coloureds
and Indians'). When individual quotas were introduced in 1979, three white-owned
companies controlled over 90% of the TAC. Despite the entrance of other trawling
companies in the following years, the TAC remained in the hands of the white-
owned companies. By 1991, there were less than 20 quota holders in the hake trawl
sector, and 80% of the TAC was still in the hands of two groups of companies.
The opening up of the industry to disadvantaged groups started only in the early
1990s.
Following the first post-apartheid elections in 1994, there were high expectations
among disadvantaged groups that the African National Congress-led government
would radically alter the distribution of fishing rights even in industrial fisheries
such as hake (Nielsen & Hara 2006). The period of 1995-2000 was marked by
the entrance of new players despite the protestations of the established indus-
try. It was also marked by the long and tortuous formulation of a new fisheries
policy - the 1998 Marine Living Resources Act (MLRA). The MLRA required
that the ownership and management of the fishing industry should reflect the de-
mographics of contemporary South Africa. The proposed radical redistribution of
quotas of 1998-1999, however, was successfully challenged by the established in-
dustry in the courts. Consequently, from the early 2000s, the government started
to switch from an 'external' transformation approach focused on new entrants to
an 'internal' transformation approach focused on what happens within established
companies. The 2001 quota allocation, which for the first time covered a period
of 4 years (2002-2005) instead of 1 year, provided the maintenance of status quo
in the distribution of quotas. This meant that in 2002, only 25% of the total TAC
was in the hands of majority black-owned companies (MCM 2004). It is in this
context, and as government prepared for the allocation of long-term rights (15
years) in 2005/2006, that MSC assessment of the South African hake industry took
place.
14.3.2 Motivations for the adoption of MSC certification
Various motivations for seeking MSC certification were mentioned by South
African hake industry actors in interviews. These are divided into two categories:
'official' motivations, which are those promoted by MCM and by major SADS-
TIA members and fall within mainstream understandings of what ecolabelling can
achieve in competitive fish markets and 'unofficial' motivations, which are those
stemming from domestic politics or are reflections on the established relations of
power within the South African hake industry. Among the 'official' motivations,
the following were found:
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