Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
in South Africa. Where conflict erupted between resources users from different gover-
nance regimes, state law prevailed and the norms and standards applied were skewed
in favor of industry and state.
As the political struggle reached its peak in the 1980s and early 1990s, fishers
increasingly engaged in 'illegal' fishing activities. In certain sectors, such as the abalone
fishery, 'protest fishing' became common place as a means of challenging the lack
of access to resources (Hauck 2009). As the struggle for political recognition by the
majority swept the country, fishers became more vociferous in their demands and more
brazen in terms of challenging fishery state law. Furthermore, the lack of legitimacy
of the state system and failure of the state to recognise and respect local customary
systems meant that conflicts (which were largely between fishers and the state) became
increasingly asymmetrical during the 1980s and 1990s. The state continued to support
big industry and push ahead with expansion of its conservation program and local
fishers engaged in 'protest fishing'.
Following the democratic elections in 1994, South Africa embarked on an
extensive law reform program. This process was guided by the new South African Con-
stitution (1996), which was underpinned by a set of human rights principles contained
in the Bill of Rights (Witbooi 2006). All organs of state were required to align their
policies, laws and implementation actions to these fundamental rights, as well as other
relevant Constitutional provisions. Thus by 1994, following industrialisation, decades
of institutionalised racism and privatisation of the marine commons, the new ANC-led
government was faced with a immense challenge of transforming an industry where
ownership of marine resources was vested in a handful of white-owned companies.
This process took place in a complex policy environment that included balancing the
opportunities created by South Africa's reintegration into the global economy and
the adoption of neo-liberal economic policies with the socially-orientated policies of
the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).
There were great expectations amongst poor coastal fishing communities that the
new democratic government would deliver on its promise of “upliftment of impover-
ished coastal communities through improved access to marine resources'' (ANC 1994:
104). However, despite participation of various sectors in deliberations regarding a new
fisheries policy, representatives from historically disadvantaged communities were not
well represented. Instead the deliberations were dominated by the large-scale fishing
industry that had formed an alliance with organised labour and jointly pressed for
the allocation of long term individual rights. This alliance was strongly opposed to
state interference in the redistribution of resources to traditional fishers (Nielsen and
Hara 2006). The three year law reform process culminated in the promulgation of
the Marine Living Resources Act (1998), which sought to achieve three broad objec-
tives: sustainability, equity and economic stability. Transformation of the industry was
another key requirement of the Act, although no clear guidance was given on how
this should be achieved (Section 2 (j) of the MLRA). A further provision that signalled
the government's commitment to a new fisheries dispensation was the recognition of
subsistence fishers as a legal category of fishers and the declaration of coastal areas for
their exclusive use (Section 19).
Analyses of the fisheries reform process 10 years after the end of apartheid sug-
gest that the achievements have been mixed at best (Van Sittert et al. 2006). There
has certainly been transformation in the industry in the form of enhanced access to
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