Casting a spotlight on the exclusion of subsistence fishers
The book delves deep into the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on local subsistence fishers who struggled to make ends meet, especially during level five.
THE South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA) and the KZN Subsistence Fisherfolk Forum launched its latest literary offering, Cast Out: The Systematic Exclusion of the KwaZulu-Natal Subsistence Fishers from the Fishing Rights Regime in South Africa on Wednesday, 11 November.
The announcement that South Africa would go into a nationwide lockdown, like many countries across the world, led to outcry from the poor of South Africa who live from hand to mouth. SDCEA decided to document the discussions of Covid-19 and the injustices of the past on fishers of KZN.
The book delves deep into the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on local subsistence fishers who struggled to make ends meet, especially during level five. Researchers Jackie Sunder and Kira Erwin, compiled the book where they highlight the division and exclusion of the existing fishing policies. The book also makes recommendations for a policy review.
“For the thousands of fishers who have been excluded from the small scale fisher’s cooperatives in KZN, the lockdown level five regulations were a harsh blow. These fishers once again found themselves cast out, at sea. Unable to fish to feed their families, many were desperate.
“The Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries approached the National Command Council and commercial fishing and small-scale fishing were declared ‘emergency services’, exempting these fishers from sections of the lockdown regulations and enabling these fisheries sectors to continue to fish. However because the subsistence fishers of KZN do not fall under the small scale fishers cooperative, they are not recognised as small scale/subsistence fishers, rather as recreational fishers and therefore could not fish ,” said SDCEA’s Sherelee Odayar.
Odayar further explained that the Covid-19 lockdown has put a spotlight on the exclusion of thousands of fisherfolk. “It has exposed an exclusionary approach to subsistence fishers in KZN that denies their constitutional right to food security, to their culture and to redress for past injustices,” she said.
A soft copy of the full book is available on www.sdcea.co.za
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