Cape Town - The South African United Fishing Front (Sauff) wants Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe and Fisheries, Forestry and Environment Minister Barbara Creecy to stop sidelining them on issues that affect them, such as the controversial seismic survey.
Sauff chairperson Pedro Garcia said in an open letter to the ministers that fishers need to make informed choices on such issues but the opportunity has not been presented to them.
He said small fishers tend to be sidelined and marginalised when it came to such issues and that they wanted to make informed decisions and find the truth on their own terms.
“As such, the letter should not be viewed by any group as an endorsement or rejection of the ongoing seismic survey debacle.”
With regard to the seismic survey, Garcia said small-scale fishers are greatly concerned as to how the recent court cases around the seismic surveys are playing themselves out in the courts.
He said their worry was not about the legality of the process or the integrity of the judges, but rather around what he called “the two extreme narratives” being presented.
“On the one side the argument is that the seismic survey is as harmless as mother’s milk, and on the other side, that this exploration will have catastrophic and irreparable consequences to the environment. Where is the middle ground?”
He said fishers recognise that the arguments around the development of oil and gas cannot be reduced to how it only affects small-scale fishers and that they need to consider what is in the best interest of the country.
This week the Western Cape High Court ruled that the ban on Australian geodata science company Searcher Seismic’s blasting of the west and south-west coast of South Africa, would stay in place.
Green Connection’s strategic lead Liziwe McDaid said: “We are happy that the law was once again on the side of the small-scale fishers who are fighting for their right, not only to sustain but also to decide their own livelihoods.”