The 50-year-old Arniston veteran has lost his fishing right despite being one of the most successful black fishermen in the southern Cape.
"I've been a fisherman for 33 years and for eight years I've had my own boat," said Felix this week, standing next to his catch in Struisbaai harbour.
"Who is going to employ me now? I have only been a fisherman. That is all I know," he said.
Felix is one of hundreds of fishermen who lost rights in the latest line-fish allocation process by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. He said he was proof that the government's fishing policy was retarding transformation, not advancing it.
"When I got to the harbour on the day when the list [of successful applicants] came out, everybody was just looking at me. The whole of Arniston is a bit disappointed," he said, adding that without a right he would no longer have jobs for his crew.
But the government said there might still be space for fishermen like Felix in its new small-scale fishing policy, which seeks to give coastal communities control over inshore fishing resources.
The policy aims to encourage collective fishing operations, rather than individual rights holders, in the hope that communities will protect the resource instead of poaching.
But many fishermen doubt the system will work, mainly owing to conflict about community leadership and disagreement over who should benefit.
Felix is convinced the government will see the error of its ways and allow him to carry on fishing. "I am a religious man. I believe the Lord makes wrong things right," he said.
Other fishermen were less optimistic. Kenny Coleman, a fish merchant in Struisbaai, said the new allocations meant he would lose many of his suppliers, in addition to his eight staff, three of whom are permanent.
"They [the government] haven't thought it through. From here, the fish goes to the wholesaler and then to the restaurant - there's a whole chain reaction," he said.
The outcry about the rights allocation prompted the government to issue a last-minute two-month reprieve for line fishermen to enable them to continue fishing in the current season. But it is cold comfort for hundreds of former licence holders, who know there is little scope for a successful appeal.
An avalanche of appeals is expected, but fewer than 20 rights have been reserved for successful applicants.
Line fish is only one of several fishing sectors under review in terms of the government's long-term rights allocation process.
Senior fisheries officials have defended the controversial rights allocations as a necessary step towards transforming the industry, whose boat owners are generally white and crew members black.
Department deputy director-general Desmond Stevens said the aim was to create thousands more jobs and ensure that more fishermen get a bigger cut of profits by taking ownership of the resource, instead of occupying menial jobs.
But many fishermen, black and white, said the process was a sham intended to benefit only a politically connected elite. Genuine fishermen had been overlooked in favour of a new clique, many of whom were already well off.
Source: Sunday Times via I-Net Bridge
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