Agmat Ismail used to be a fisherman in Kalk Bay, South Africa but now runs a table in the fish market. “The government took all the fishing licenses away, now what’s going to happen there will be no more fishermen left in South Africa.”
Often the Fishermen are forced to sleep on the streets because they cannot catch enough fish to survive. A South African fishing license only allows to you catch 10 fish a day, if you go over this quota you get fined R5000 ($600).
Nazeem Slarmie, and ex fishermen, said “it’s not worth going out to catch 10 fish; the cost of going out is greater than the profit. Most of the small boats never go out anymore because it’s not worth it. There was once a time when during the day there were no boats left in the harbor, because everyone was out fishing, but now you see the harbor is full of boats.”
The larger boats often go over their quota of fish but are able to bribe the harbor inspectors. There is a lot of corruption in the system nowadays and it’s nearly impossible to make it as a small boat owner.
With the fishermen forced to stay in the harbor all day they often turn to drinking and drugs. They have no motivation in life for the fishermen anymore; they don’t see hope for a future, all they see is corruption in government, which is constantly bringing them farther down.
When I was done talking to the fishermen I walked around the harbor and was amazed at how many boats where still in the harbor. The fishermen are literally just sitting around either drinking, or waiting to see if they might be able to find work for the day.
It seems to be that the fishing industry in South Africa is starting to look like organized crime.
I kept asking people who in government I could talk to about their people taking bribes, and the corruption in the harbor and everyone kept telling me it goes to high up, there is no one who can do anything.
Though this is really my first “investigative journalism” I’ve doing in South Africa I was amazed at the respond, I started getting random people calling me telling me about the corruption they have seen, or how different boat owners had used intimidation to shut them up, or how the owners and captains lie about the amount of fish they get and don’t pay the fishermen fairly.
One of the local fancy restaurants called Palana’s is owned by a man who, according to several of the fishermen and shop owners in Kalk Bay is dealing Coke through his restaurant and tries to control everything that’s going on in the harbor. He’s chased the fishermen, told them how they can or can’t do business, and treats them like they are worthless.
We should be praying for theses fishermen that the government officials who take bribes will be brought to light, and also for a fairly distributed quota of fish.
