Small-scale fishers verification submission deadline looms

Cape Town - Fishing communities have until the end of November 2022 to complete their verification forms for the small-scale fisheries’ rights allocation process in the Western Cape.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment on Wednesday announced that the verification process was only open to those community members who participated in the initial Western Cape small-scale fisheries’ rights allocation process in 2016.

In total, 67% of verification forms were issued to previous participants during the two weeks of distribution.

“Following a two-week community mobilisation process in Western Cape communities, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment has agreed to give fishing communities until the end of November 2022 to complete their verification forms for the small-scale fisheries’ rights allocation process in the Western Cape.

“The department had received concerns from community leaders and community-based organisations (CBOs) that communities were not ready for the receipting process. After internal consultations, the department approved the requests from CBOs to start the receipting process on 5 December 2022 and end on 15 December 2022, to give communities sufficient time to complete their verification forms.

“The department had also agreed to accept and assist people that come to the Foretrust Building to collect their verifications forms after the Catch-All week,” the department said.

The distribution of verification forms has been completed in the various small-scale fishing communities across the Western Cape.

The distribution process took place at 68 venues covering the 109 coastal communities in the province.

“For the purposes of this process, the Western Cape was divided into four regions which consist of the Cape Metro, West Coast, South Coast and Southern Cape (Garden Route).

“In light of the high number of people that did not collect their verification forms, the department had an update meeting with CBOs and announced its plans to have a Catch-All week from 17 October 2022 to 21 October 2022. For the Catch-All week, the department identified and visited six central venues throughout the four regions of Western Cape, to give another opportunity to all those that might have not collected their forms previously. The overall turnout for the Catch-All week was not as high as anticipated, as the department only managed to reach 7% of the remaining expected community members that participated in the previous process.

“The inclusion of the Catch-All week has therefore meant that the receipting process will need to be moved back by two weeks to allow people that collect their verification forms during the Catch-All week sufficient time to gather any required supporting documents and complete and the form.”

Cape Times