The MOA between the two Departments will cover areas such as:
“This MOA will enable us to solve a long-standing problem of access for Small Scale Fishers to public works facilities in small harbours,” says the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy.
“This will include facilitating small-scale co-operatives to enter into longer-term leases of up to 10 years for public works buildings.”
She was speaking during an imbizo hosted in Diazville in Saldanha Bay
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Sihle Zikalala indicated that “this preferential access will enable co-operatives to invest in developing freezing, storage and processing facilities in small harbours.”
The MOA and related implementation plans are expected to be completed in the second quarter of the financial year.
Earlier in May, the DPWI invested R501m as part of a major refurbishment programme to the 13 proclaimed fishing in the Western Cape small harbours harbours in the Western Cape.
Zikalala announced the investment during a visit to the Saldanha and Hout Bay Harbour upgrade projects.
The Small Harbours Repairs and Maintenance Programme is a strategic infrastructure programme spearheaded by the DPWI, aimed at bringing the harbours to a greater level of efficiency to revitalise the local economy and to serve the local fishermen, tenants and surrounding communities.
The programme has a catalytic effect on local job creation and investment attraction as well as contributing to the removal of sunken vessels, dredging of the harbour basins, repairs to slipways, shore crane replacements, security, civil and electrical infrastructure upgrades.
The upgrades of the small harbours aim to create an appetite for new investors within the harbours which will reignite the local economies across the coastal areas of South Africa and have a positive spin –offs on job creation.
