The DA has failed to reform failing fisheries department

If ever there was a department in serious need of a complete overhaul, Fisheries would be it.

For many years, the department has been plagued by confirmed cases of serious corruption and administrative inefficiency. The majority of legal fishers are struggling to make a living, while much of our fishing resource has become severely depleted. Paper quotas dominate many sectors, and politically connected companies appear to receive the lion’s share of allocations. Enforcement has been ineffective, suggestions for improvement have often been ignored, and in many cases the illegal fishery is believed to be far larger than the legal one.

The fact that the department has financed much of its administration through the sale of confiscated abalone, reportedly worth more than a billion rand over time, also deserves mention. Few things illustrate bureaucratic thinking more clearly than the vast discrepancy between what highly paid officials earn and what they expect fishers to survive on. The result is a system that increasingly serves administrators rather than the communities and individuals who depend on the resource for their livelihoods.

Following the last election, control of certain state departments was handed to parties outside the ANC. The Department of Correctional Services deserves special mention, with the Freedom Front Plus demonstrating how quickly significant improvements can be achieved when there is political will and effective leadership.

When the DA took over the fisheries portfolio, it was presented with the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how much better it could perform than the ANC. I would love to report here about the amazing turnaround under new management, but it would be a lie. While there is much that could be done, it appears that very little has changed. The department continues to pursue many of the same policies that have contributed to resource depletion and poverty, overseen largely by the same officials. Then, when Dion George began speaking about reform, he was summarily removed from the position.

The recent complaint submitted to his successor, Minister Willie Aucamp (see “COMPLAINT — WILL MINISTER RESPOND.pdf “), which was ignored at every level, only confirms what has become increasingly apparent. Complaints concerning the DA on a variety of issues have likewise been met with silence.

Furthermore, fisheries now appears to be a portfolio passed around like a hot potato among DA ministers, with David Maynier becoming the third minister responsible for the department in less than two years. John Steenhuisen has also lost his position as Minister of Agriculture following a period of controversy surrounding the foot-and-mouth disease crisis, although the DA has not publicly stated its reasons for the reshuffle.

Despite the party’s frequent claims of efficiency and good governance, it appears to be struggling to maintain continuity in its ministerial appointments. While the DA was allocated only two ministries, it has already cycled through five ministers, raising questions about stability and long-term accountability.

I would like to remind the reader of the National Party, which, despite being regarded as the official opposition to the ANC for many years, ultimately disappeared as an independent political force and dissolved in 2005. Many of its supporters subsequently moved to the DA. In fact, this was a pivotal moment for the DA, after which it came to be widely regarded as the principal opposition to the ANC. As a side note, it should be remembered that, for many voters, the DA was not necessarily the first choice, but rather the best remaining option after the National Party’s collapse.

Now consider the possibility that something similar has occurred through the Government of National Unity, without the public being fully informed of it. It has not gone unnoticed that the DA’s policies appear to be moving closer to those of the ANC, while many of the party’s original leaders and prominent figures have departed.

South Africans need to seriously consider whether the DA can still be regarded as the official opposition to corruption, inefficiency, and the ANC—or whether it has become part of the very establishment it once promised to challenge.